Review Article 2017, 8(10), 983-986 Advanced Materials Letters Copyright © 2017 VBRI Press 983 Research of plastic and wood raw wastes recovery Peter Križan * , Juraj Beniak, Miloš Matúš, Ľubomír Šooš, Ľudovít Kolláth Institute of Manufacturing Systems, Environmental Engineering and Quality Management, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Slovak University of Technology, Nám. Slobody 17, Bratislava, 812 31, Slovakia * Corresponding author: Tel: (+421) 257296537; E-mail: peter.krizan@stuba.sk Received: 03 December 2016, Revised: 18 February 2017 and Accepted: 09 April 2017 DOI: 10.5185/amlett.2017.1587 www.vbripress.com/aml Abstract The main aim of this paper is to present the research findings regarding the recovery possibilities of plastic and wood raw wastes. One of the recovery possibilities for mentioned raw materials is production of waste raw materials based wood- plastic composites (WPC). Lonely production process is influenced by technological and raw material parameters (type of raw material and particle size) and thus the final quality and mechanical properties of WPCs have to be determine. This paper also presents the results of realized experimental research which dealt with the determination of relationship between material parameters and mechanical properties during production of WPCs. The main goal of presented paper is to determine the mutual interaction between mechanical properties, type of the plastic matrix used in WPC, wood/plastic concentration ratio and particle size of wood sawdust used in WPC. In this paper the authors also comparing mechanical properties of WPCs based on recycled and original plastics. As a plastic matrix 100 % original HDPE and recycled HDPE originating from lids of PET bottles was used. Obtained research findings can be very helpful at WPCs production and shown the possibility of using also waste raw materials for WPC products, and thus increase the environmental responsibility with the environment protection. Copyright © 2017 VBRI Press. Keywords: Material recovery, WPC, waste, mechanical properties, HDPE, particle size. Introduction There is an estimated hundreds million tons of wood and plastic waste produced each year [1, 2]. The construction waste is one of the largest waste streams in the EU. The EC Waste Directive 2008/98 targets a more sustainable construction industry, recovering a 70% (by weight) of its non-hazardous construction waste by 2020[3]: to meet that objective, new solutions must be found to achieve an efficient material recovery. One of the solution should be the wood-plastic composites (WPCs) production process [4] which is very well known. The rising concern towards environmental issues and, on the other hand, the need for more polymer-based materials has led to increasing interest about polymer composites based waste materials [5].The wood-plastic composites (WPCs) production process is very well known. Also, various research studies with material and technological variables impacts on the production are dealing with [5, 6]. WPCs are produced by thoroughly mixing ground wood particles (sawdust) and heated thermoplastic resin [6]. The most common method of production is to extrude the material into the desired shape using injection molding [7]. WPCs may be produced from various virgin thermoplastics but polyethylene based WPCs are by far the most common [8]. Also, the additives such as colorants, coupling agents, UV stabilizers, blowing agents or foaming agents are included [7, 8]. The usual composition of WPCs based virgin material is 60 - 65% of high-density polyethylene (HDPE) [6], 30 % of wood sawdust without defined granulometry, but the particle sizes up to 2 mm and the additives according to the final application, which helps tailor the end product to the target area of application [4]. Other hand on the base of amounts of wastes and environment protection is using of waste or recycled materials for WPCs production a big issue for nowadays [6]. The general purpose of this paper is to gain the research findings about waste recovery possibility that can show the possibility and application for rapid prototyping using WPCs based waste raw materials. Obtained research findings can be very helpful at WPCs production and shown the possibility of using also waste raw materials for WPC products and using of such a composites for rapid prototyping which is very interesting issue and recovery possibility for nowadays. Taking in mind these sources of wastes which opens such opportunities and challenges with application of recycling and recovery methods can be increase the environmental responsibility with the environment protection.