Development of Reinforced Recycled Plastic Lumber Posts for Agriculture Fencing

Abstract

Plastic solid waste (PSW) presents challenges and opportunities to societies regardless of their sustainability awareness and technological advances. During the 1990s, a number of technologies emerged to utilize recycled plastics in products designed to replace dimensional wood lumber. Since that time, recycled plastic umber (RPL) products have proven to be effective alternatives for many applications, offering high durability and requiring little maintenance. Plastic lumber products are resilient, weather-resistant, and impervious to rot, mildew, and termites. They do not require painting or staining. The first applications of plastic lumber products were in non-structural applications such as picnic tables and benches. As the industry has matured through the years, innovative research and development work by the plastic lumber industry and universities has fostered the development of superior performing products which in turn has begun to establish new and demanding structural applications for these products. Much of the work has involved the application of composites technology to the reuse of post-consumer and post-industrial materials in plastic lumber products. This evolution, from non-structural applications to structural application is achieved by reinforcing plastic lumber with glass fibres, steel and iron rods etc. In the present study we used LDPE recycled plastic lumber with and without reinforcement to compare its mechanical properties with wood and concrete as fencing posts and also plastic coating is given to bamboo to prevent it from termite and rodent attack.