Preparation and Properties of Wood Plastic Composites with Desirable Features Using Poplar and Five Recyclable Plastic Wastes

A Natural Lignification Inspired Super-Hard Wood-Based Composites with Extreme Resilience

The growing demand for high-strength, durable materials capable of enduring extreme environments presents a significant challenge, particularly in balancing performance with sustainability. Conventional materials such as alloys and ceramics are nonrenewable, expensive, and require energy-intensive production processes. Here, super-hard wood-based composites (WBC) inspired by the meso-scale homogeneous lignification process intrinsic to tree growth are designed and developed. This hybrid structure is achieved innovatively by leveraging the infusion of low-molecular-weight phenol formaldehyde resin into the cell walls of thin wood slices, followed by a unique multi-layer construction and high-temperature compression. The resulting composite exhibits remarkable properties, including a Janka hardness of 24 382 N and a Brinell hardness of 40.7 HB, along with exceptional antipiercing performance. The created super-hard, sustainable materials address the limitations of nonrenewable resources while providing enhanced protection, structural stability, and exceptional resilience. The WBC approach aligns with UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by offering extra values for improving personal safety and building integrity across various engineering applications.

A Review on Sustainability Characteristics Development for Wooden Furniture Design

The design of furniture products is influenced by increasing consumer interest in green products and sustainability values. However, although the demand for sustainable furniture products is high, the standardization of sustainability characteristics in furniture design has still not been achieved. A thorough literature review was conducted, which considered various sustainability characteristics that apply in industries that design furniture. This review paper aimed to identify common sustainability characteristics so that a new standard for furniture industries can be established. In this review, numerous themes were explored relating to design guidelines, design criteria, design preferences, design optimization, design evaluation and assessment, design decision making, strategic planning, design strategies, the integration of eco-design, and eco-design tools. A total of 137 articles were reviewed regarding their sustainability characteristics according to the triple bottom-line framework for a relevant product sector. Due to the limited reports on the sustainability characteristics of furniture design activities, this paper also tried to include common sustainability characteristics of non-furniture products that are available on the market. Through the review, 10 sustainability characteristics were identified for the environment, 17 for the economy, and 16 for the social dimension as being common among manufacturers when designing their products. A further in-depth analysis was conducted by mapping the characteristics to those that were significantly implemented in the design process, of which five (5) were environmental, two (2) were economic, and five (5) were social sustainability characteristics. This review is significant in helping furniture designers to use appropriate and effective sustainability standards in the design and manufacture of products that meet customers’ demands. Previous literature reviews have not clearly measured the triple bottom line. Furthermore, no definite characteristics were proposed in previous works regarding wooden furniture design, leaving a gap to be closed by future works.

Eco-friendly wood-plastic composites from laminate sanding dust and waste poly(propylene) food pails

Plastic pollution caused by non-degradable petrochemical-based plastics has become a serious environmental problem in China, and the reasonable management of industrial waste and renewable resources remains a huge challenge. Here, we report environment-friendly wood-plastic composites (WPCs), prepared from decorative high-pressure laminate (HPL) sanding dust (filler) and waste thermoplastic food pails (matrix), as well as comprehensively evaluate the processability, mechanical and interfacial properties, indoor safety evaluation. The elemental composition and thermal stability of these two residue materials were suitable for the WPC manufacturing process. The content of HPL sanding dust in WPC was fixed at 60 wt%, and the amount of maleic anhydride grafted polypropylene (MAPP) added was 5 wt%-7 wt%, which maximized the utilization of waste resources, and can obtain impact strength as high as 5-6 kJ/m², tensile strength of 35-42 MPa and flexural strength as high as 43-46 MPa. The developed WPCs had low formaldehyde emissions (≤1.53 mg/m³) and slightly improved flame retardancy. Finally, their lower cost (5,035 yuan/ton) and higher eco-efficiency (12.81 yuan/kg CO₂) characteristics allowed them to be compatible with the current sustainable development requirements. This study provides a novel approach for the utilization of industrial waste and recyclable resources for sustainable replacement of wood-based products.