Wood Plastic Composites: A Growing Alternative to Timber
Dating back to the 1980s, composites of wood and thermoset or thermoplastic are hardly a contemporary invention. However, such composites only entered wide use in the 1990s with the development of solid wood plastic composites (WPC) comprising approximately 50% wood fibre in polyethylene. Widely regarded as a major milestone in material innovation, WPC was quickly adopted for diverse use as deck boards, landscape timbers, industrial flooring, and picnic tables, in addition to being milled into window and door component profiles.