Polymer-Plastics Technology and Engineering, 47: 741744, 2008

Copyright # Taylor & Francis Group, LLC

ISSN: 0360-2559 print/1525-6111 online
DOI: 10.1080/03602550802188565

Municipal Solid Waste as a Source of Lignocellulosic Fiber

and Plastic for Composite Industries
Alireza Ashori
Department of Chemical Industries, Iranian Research Organization for Science
and Technology (IROST), Tehran, Iran

Municipal solid wastes (MSWs) generated each year contain

potentially useful and recyclable materials for composites. Interest
is high for the use of MSWs in composites, thus providing cost
and environmental benefits. The main objective of this study was
to show the potential of municipal solid waste materials for making
wood plastic composites. The possibility of using recycled materials
in the development of composites is very attractive, especially with
respect to the large quantity of wood and plastic waste generated
daily. Waste wood and paper can meet all the requirements in order
to replace inorganic fillers in thermoplastic composites. Advantages
associated with biocomposite products include lighter weight and
improved acoustic, impact, and heat reformability propertiesall
at a cost less than that of comparable products made from plastics
alone. In addition, these composites can possibly be reclaimed and
recycled for the production of second-generation composites.
Keywords Biodegradable;
Composite;
Green
Mechanical properties; Waste materials

chemistry,

INTRODUCTION
The word waste typically conjures up a vision of
material with no value or useful purpose. The generation of
solid and industrial wastes, however, is increasing at an
alarming rate. It is difficult to dispose of the growing volume
of municipal solid wastes (MSWs) in landfills because most
people will not tolerate MSWs in their neighborhood. If
present trends continue, the majority of our landfills will be
closed in the near future. As political and conservation pressures increase, the recovery and=or reduction of recyclable
materials from the solid-waste stream are urgently needed[1].
When two or more materials with different properties
are combined together, they form a composite material[2].
The properties of composite materials, in general, are
superior in many respects to those of the individual
constituents. This has provided the main motivation for
the research and development of composite materials.
Address correspondence to A. Ashori, Iranian Research
Organization for Science and Technology (IROST), P.O. Box
15815-3538, Tehran, Iran. E-mail: ashori@irost.ir

The properties of polymeric composite materials are

mainly determined by three constitutive elements: the polymer, the reinforcement (such as particles and fibers), and
the interface between them[3]. The composite industry
always looks into alternative low-cost lignocellulosic
sources that can decrease overall manufacturing costs
and increase stiffness of the materials. However, green
chemistry technology is evolving that holds promise for
using waste or recycled wood, paper, and plastics to make
an array of high-performance products that are, in themselves, potentially recyclable. A number of studies have
been reported[1,4,5,6,7] that describe recycled plastics such
as polyethylene, polypropylene, or polyethylene terephthalate, which can be combined with wood fiber waste to make
useful wood-plastic composites (WPCs).
The overall goal of this study is to illustrate the availability and potential of waste materials from MSW streams
and the desirability of developing the means to recycle
them.
MUNICIPAL SOLID WASTE AS A SOURCE
OF LIGNOCELLULOSIC FIBER AND PLASTICS
MSW comes from residential, commercial, institutional,
and industrial sources and includes such things as durable
and nondurable goods, containers and packaging, food
scraps, yard trimmings, and miscellaneous inorganic
waste[8]. Waste wood, waste paper, and waste plastics are
major components of MSW and offer great opportunities
as recycled ingredients in wood-plastic composites
(WPCs)[5].
With a rising level of prosperity in industrialized
countries, an increasing number of products and services
are being produced and consumed. This development is
reflected in the amount of waste generated. Data from
the past three decades show that the total amount of
municipal solid waste is continuously rising. Figure 1
shows the quantities of household waste (without demolition waste) in a number of European countries. A rise
of about 23% each year can be seen[9].

741

742

A. ASHORI

FIG. 1. The development of municipal solid waste quantities in selected

European countries[9].

Irans basic approach to MSW is: (1) waste prevention

and minimization, (2) promotion of recycling, and (3)
environmentally-sound final disposal. The generation of
waste is controlled at the source by households and business enterprises. Recyclable components of such waste
are disposed of separately to facilitate recycling. The data
in Table 1 include all the domestic residential waste products, but not all the industrial waste materials. Data are
invluded for the total weight and percentage of certain
Tehran (capital of Iran) MSW streams, but lack information for wood (including timber, leaves, bark, sawdust)
and industrial production wastes. In 2006 the total quantities of MSW in Tehran added up to 84.2 thousand tons,
generated by the population of 7.728 million. This means
that about 1.1 kg of waste is generated per capita per
day. Paper, paperboard, and plastics in the MSW stream
accounted for approximately 18.6 and 9.4 thousand tons,
respectively. Vast quantities of low-grade wood, wood
residues, and industry-generated wood waste in the form

TABLE 1
Distribution of materials in Tehran (Iran) municipal solid
waste in 2006

of sawdust, planer shavings, and chips are now being

burned. In addition, a number of problems are associated
with the use of these waste materials, some of which
include collection, separation, clean up, uniformity, form,
and costs. Assuming that these problems can be overcome
on a cost effective basis, some of the resultant reclaimed
materials should be useful ingredients for a range of
valuable composites, from low-cost, high-volume materials
to high-cost, low-volume materials for a wide range of
end-use applications[1].
Source separation and recycling not only extend the life
of landfills by removing materials from the MSW stream,
but they also make available large volumes of valuable
raw materials for use by industry in place of virgin
resources. Industrial use of such materials reduces the costs
for raw materials and the energy it takes to make a finished product. The main requirement is that the recycled
ingredients meet the quality and quantity requirements of
the consuming production operation[1].

USE OF WASTE MATERIALS IN WPC

WPCs are enjoying rapid growth due to their many
advantages. Reasonable strength and stiffness, low cost,
low density, absence of associated health hazards, easy
fiber surface modification, wide availability, and relative
nonabrasiveness[10] are some of these advantages. In
addition, the processing is flexible, economical, and ecological. On the other hand, natural organic fibers from
renewable natural resources offer the potential to act as a
sustainable and biodegradable reinforcing material alternative for the use of glass or carbon fiber and inorganic fillers.
Figure 2 shows the strength of different plant fibers
compared to glass. Considering the specific properties, a
weight-saving potential of about 15% compared to glass
fiber-reinforced materials is not unrealistic. At the moment,
this is one of the most relevant, technical-driving forces for
further developments[11].

Amount in municipal solid waste

Source
Dried bread
Paper and paperboard
Miscellaneous inorganic
Plastics
Metals
Glass
Textiles
Total

Percentage

Weight (103 t)

42.1
22.1
13.2
11.2
9.0
1.7
0.7
100

35.5
18.6
11.1
9.4
7.6
1.4
0.6
84.2

Source: Adapted from Recycling Organization of Tehran

Municipal report.

FIG. 2.

Specific strength of plant fibers compared to glass.

743

SOLID WASTE AS A SOURCE OF FIBER AND PLASTIC

Wood-flour and sawdust have been used in the plastics

industry for many years as filler to reduce the cost of finished goods, as well as to improve properties such as stiffness, in the same manner as inorganic fillers. The
advantages of wood over inorganic fillers include lower
cost, reduced weight, the use of a renewable resource,
and lower wear on processing equipment. In many uses
WPCs can be opaque, colored, painted, or overlaid. Consequently, recovered fibers or resins used in these composites
do not require the extreme cleaning and refinement needed
when they are to be used as raw materials for printing
paper or pure plastic resins. This fact greatly reduces the
cost of WPCs as raw materials and makes composite panels
an unusually favorable option for the recycling of three of
our most visible and troublesome classes of MSW. Waste
wood, waste paper, and waste plastic bottles are major
components of MSWs and offer great opportunities as
recycled ingredients in wood fiber-plastic composites[1]
Winandy et al. [5] reported that recycled sources of both
wood and plastic are commonly used in WPCs (Table 2).
In 2002 Trex, the largest supplier of wood-plastic composite lumber, purchased on average over 227,000 kg of plastic scrap each day[12]. CorrectDeck uses about half virgin
plastic and the other half is obtained from recycled grocery
bags and used pallet wrap[13]. Anderson developed engineered
WPC materials for its Renewal line of windows from a

wood-PVC composite material made from wood and PVC

material partially reclaimed from its wood window plants
(Table 2). Boise has recently developed and introduced its
new HomePlate siding made with 50% recycled polyethylene
and 50% reprocessed urban wood fiber. In total, the woodplastic industry in North America consumed an estimated 204
million kg of plastic in 2001, of which more than 95% of it
was recycled. Of all the polyolefins reclaimed from the postconsumer waste stream, 38% ended up in wood-plastic composites[12]. Because a large portion of the plastic waste stream
is already commonly used in WPCs, it is becoming more difficult to secure recycled raw material sources. Many commercial WPC manufacturers use a combination of recycled
wood-based materials and recycled plastics.[5].
Unlike the traditional engineering fiberse.g., glass and
carbon fibers, and mineral fillersthe lignocellulosic fibers
are able to impart to a composite certain benefits such as
low density, less machine wear during processing than that
produced by mineral reinforcements, no health hazards,
and a high degree of flexibility[14].
In WPC manufacturing, virgin thermoplastic materials
(e.g., high and low density polyethylene [HDPE and
LDPE], polypropylene [PP], poly vinyl chloride [PVC])
are widely used. Similar to virgin plastics, any recycled
plastic which can melt and be processed below the degradation temperature of wood or other lignocellulosic fillers

TABLE 2
Listing of common sources for the plastic and wood fiber used in some commercial wood plastic composite products
commercially marketed in the United States[5]

Plastic type

Wood
content
(%)

50
50
50

50
50
50

Company name

Plastic source

Trex
Crane Plastics
Fiber composites

Recycled
Virgin
Recycled and
virgin
Recycled and
virgin
Recycled
Recycled and
virgin
Recycled
Recycled

Pallets and furniture waste

Recycled oak wood flour
Oak and pine from millwork

PE mix
HDPE
HDPE, LDPE, PVC

Reclaimed cedar wood chips,

oak millwork
Wood and natural fiber
Pine scrap

PE
HDPE
PVC

65
50

35
50

Rice hull flour

All sawmill waste

HDPE
PE

40
50

60
50

Virgin

Hardwood and softwood flour

Recycled fiber
Recycled paper fiber
Pallets and post-industrial
oak fiber
Oak and pine wood fiber

HDPE, LDPE
PVC
HDPE
HDPE

Max. 65
40

Max. 45
60

40

60

AERT
USPL
Anderson
Nexwood
LP specialty
products
Mikron
Certain teed
Kadant composites
Dura products
Correct building
products

Recycled
Recycled
Virgin

Wood source

Plastic
content
(%)

PP

744

A. ASHORI

(200C) is usually suitable for manufacturing WPCs. Plastic

wastes are one of the major volumes of global municipal
solid waste and present a promising raw material source
for new value-added products (WPCs) thanks to their large
amount of daily generation and low cost[15]. The utilization
of recycled plastics has been considered for the manufacture of WPCs. The results have shown that properties of
composites made from waste plastics are similar to those
made from virgin materials[16,17].

4.

5.

6.

CONCLUSION
Reductions are urgently needed in the quantities of MSW
materials that are currently being landfilled. Waste wood,
waste paper, and waste plastics are major components of
MSW and offer great opportunities as recycled ingredients
in wood-plastic composites. The possibility of using recycled
materials in the development of composites is very attractive,
especially with respect to the large quantity of plastic waste
generated daily. For environmental, technical, and cost reasons there is increased interest in replacing inorganic filler
(e.g., talcum or chalk) and reinforcement materials (glass
fiber) with waste wood and=or paper fibers. Advantages associated with these composites include lighter weight and
improved acoustic, impact, and heat reformability propertiesall at a cost less than that of comparable products made
from plastics alone. In addition, biocomposite products can
possibly be reclaimed and recycled for the production of
second-generation composites.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Financial support (F. No. 600-47) from the Iranian
Research Organization for Science and Technology
(IROST) is gratefully acknowledged. The author also
wishes to thank Dr. M. H. Eikani for his help and advice
during this work.

7.

8.

9.

10.

11.

12.
13.
14.

15.

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