Abstract
Plastic waste management has become a major concern environmentally across the globe,
especially in developing countries. Plastic waste is synthetic and non-degradable material.
However, it has great economic importance when recycle and used with other environmentallyfriendly
materials to produce composites for structural engineering works. The production and
application of this product will minimise the environmental problems of plastic waste. The usage
of this composite material globally, will help reduce the high dependency on the limited forest
timbers of soft and hardwoods. Bamboo fibre and plastic waste can be used to produce this
composite which will be used for all load carrying elements. Bamboo fibre as reinforcement in
polymers is on the increase because is biodegradable and environmentally friendly. This study
looks at the effects of the production methods and the materials ratio effect on the mechanical
and the physical properties of bamboo fibre and plastic waste composites boards. The fibres
were extracted by mechanical method, whilst the wastes plastics are clean, dried and shredded
before melting to mix with the fibres. The molten plastics wastes were poured into moulds
mixed with fibres and then allowed to cool completely, after removed from the case of open
casting. In compression moulding, the mould charge was pressed using the mould cover. Water
absorption, bending strength, impact strength and thickness swelling were carried according to
standard measures. The fibre content and production method influenced the mechanical and
physical properties of the composites. Higher fibre content in the composite resulted in higher
water absorption and thickness swelling. It was observed that water absorption was significantly
influenced by the fibre content at α = 0.05. The hydrophilic nature of the fibres has increased
water absorption and thickness swelling significantly leading to dimensional instability of the
composites. Moulded composites showed better physical properties than open casting method,
possibly due to reduced void space during polymerization. These tests suggested that reducing
void space and incorporating fibres into the plastic improves the end use properties. These
findings could be used to develop alternative materials for construction and manufacturing
industries where load bearing is required.