Original Article Wood plastic composites made from post-used polystyrene foam and agricultural waste Koay Seong Chun 1 , Varnesh Subramaniam 1 , Chan Ming Yeng 2 , Pang Ming Meng 1 , Chantara Thevy Ratnam 3 , Tshai Kim Yeow 4 and Cheah Kean How 5 Abstract Ever since the development of lightweight polystyrene foam, the material has become an attractive single-use product packaging in various industries. Despite its high versatilities, post consumed polystyrene foam has very low rate of recycling due to the high cost during transportation and there is hardly any established economical recycling route. The purpose of this research is to investigate the potential of converting the polystyrene foam waste as raw material for producing wood plastic composite (WPC). In the present study, predefined formulation of recycled polystyrene (rPS), durian husk fiber (DHF) and processing aid Ultra-Plast TM WP516 were melt blended with the aid of Haake internal mixer. The homogenous mixtures were subsequently compression molded to form WPC. The effect of material compositions on tensile, thermal, and morphological properties of the rPS/DHF composite was highlighted. The results showed that tensile strength and modulus increase with fiber content, while elongation at break and thermal stability were decreased. With higher loading of Ultra-Plast TM WP516, both tensile and thermal properties decreased. This research found that WPC with optimum strength of 18.8 MPa can be produced from rPS having 60 parts per hundred resin (phr) of DHF and 1 School of Engineering, Faculty of Built Environment, Engineering, Technology and Design, Taylor’s University Lakeside Campus, Subang Jaya, Selangor, Malaysia 2 Centre of Engineering Programmes, HELP College of Arts and Technology, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia 3 Radiation Processing Technology, Malaysian Nuclear Agency, Kajang, Selangor, Malaysia 4 Faculty of Engineering, The University of Nothtingham, Semenyih, Selangor, Malaysia 5 School of Engineering and Physical Science, Heriot-Watt University Malaysia, Putrajaya, Malaysia Corresponding author: Koay Seong Chun, School of Engineering, Faculty of Built Environment, Engineering, Technology and Design, Taylor’s University Lakeside Campus, No. 1, Jalan Taylor’s, 47500 Subang Jaya, Selangor, Malaysia. Email: seongchun.koay@taylors.edu.my Journal of Thermoplastic Composite Materials 1–12 ª The Author(s) 2018 Article reuse guidelines: sagepub.com/journals-permissions DOI: 10.1177/0892705718799836 journals.sagepub.com/home/jtc