Recycling engine oil containers to prepare wood–plastic composites

The collected oil containers were drained, crushed, and used directly to make wood–plastic composites through reactive extrusion, using maleic anhydride (MA) and maleated polyethylene (PE‐ g ‐MA) as coupling agents. Oil residue in the container would be controlled at lower than 6 wt % through simple draining, and it played a role as a plasticizer in the plastics and composites. As a coupling agent, MA performed better than PE‐ g ‐MA. The comprehensive mechanical properties of oil container plastics (OCP)/wood/MA (60/40/2 w/w) composite were at the same level as those of neat plastic/wood/PE‐ g ‐MA (60/40/3.2 w/w) system. Both PE‐ g ‐MA and MA effectively improved water resistance of the OCP/wood flour composites, especially MA. The residual oil in the composites was stable under heat to about 200°C or in the water, and it did not influence the thermal degradation behavior of the composites. The OCP was successfully used to make wood–plastic composite panels. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2011