Evaluation possibilities to utilize rice straw and plastic waste for particleboard

Abstract

Rice straw is an abundant waste from almost rice field in Asia. Plastic is also an abundant waste in many countries which damages the environment seriously, while the need for wood continues to increase. To overcome these environmental problems we have developed a particleboard from rice straw by using plastic waste polypropylene as a matrix with the rice straw compositions of 30, 40, 50, 60, and 70 wt. %. Some physical properties (density and thickness swelling) and mechanical properties (modulus of rupture, modulus of elasticity, and compressive strength) of the particleboard have been measured. Our results showed that the density of rice straw polypropylene particleboard is found to be 0.56 g/cm 3 to 0.8 g/cm 3 . Its thickness swelling after immersion in the water for 24 hours is less than 5%. Its modulus of rupture is found to be 83 to 134 kgf/cm 2 . The modulus of elasticity is 3.3x10 4 to 4.5x10 4 kgf/cm 2 and the compressive strength is about 6.7 MPa. Our analysis revealed that the rice straw polypropylene particleboard with the rice straw compositions of 30, 40, 50, and 60 wt. % meets the Indonesian National Standard and Japanese Industrial Standard requirements for particleboard.