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Formaldehyde-based resins such as urea-formaldehyde (UF) are the most widely used adhesives in the plywood industry. However, due to the concerns about formaldehyde toxicity, there is a need to develop formaldehyde-free adhesive materials. Therefore, the present study aimed to minimize or eliminate the harmful effects of UF resin by using recycled high-density polyethylene (HDPE) from post-consumed fruit packing boxes as a nontoxic adhesive. Three-layer plywood panels using poplar veneers and recycled HDPE films were prepared. UF was used as a control adhesive for the comparison. The influence of three variable parameters in terms of HDPE content (from 80 to 320 g/m2), hot-pressing temperature (from 140 to 180 °C), and pressing duration (from 3 to 8 min) on the properties of plywood panels were evaluated. For evaluation, physical properties, namely water absorption (WA), thickness swelling (TS), and mechanical properties, namely modulus of elasticity (MOE), modulus of rupture (MOR), and glue-line shear strength of the samples, were studied. The findings of this work confirmed that HDPE films gave the values of mechanical properties of plywood panels comparable to those obtained with UF adhesive, even though the adhesive content and pressing time were lower than when the UF adhesive was used. The obtained bonding strength values of HDPE-bonded plywood panels ranged from 0.82 to 1.60 MPa and met the requirement for the European Standard EN 314-2. According to FE-SEM micrographs, the fractured surface of plywood panels with 240 g/m2 of HDPE displayed a homogeneous cross-section area, and a large amount of HDPE was attached to the veneer surfaces. It was found that the average mechanical properties tended to increase with an increase in the pressing temperature and time. The type of adhesive had a significant effect on WA and TS. The smallest values of WA and TS were observed in plywood samples using high contents of HDPE films (240 and 320 g/m2). The optimum conditions were an HDPE loading of 240 g/m2, a hot-pressing temperature of 160 °C, and a hot-pressing time of 5 min. The overall results showed that recycled HDPE had enough potential to reuse as a promising adhesive for the environmentally-friendly plywood manufacturing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective this study was to fabricate 5-ply boards using virgin and recycled high-density polyethylene (vHDPE and rHDPE) films as formaldehyde-free adhesives, respectively. To enhance the interfacial adhesion between the wood veneer and HDPE film, various loadings (0, 3, 6, 8, and 11 wt%) of polyethylene grafted maleic anhydride (PE- g -MA) were applied as a coupling agent. The physical and mechanical performance of the resulting plywood boards was evaluated using standard test methods, with a UF resin-bonded plywood used as a control for comparison. All materials used were for commercial-scale plywood production. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) results provided valuable information about chemical interactions that occurred during the coupling of poplar fibers with HDPE using PE-g-MA. The experimental results showed that the mechanical and physical properties of the plywood boards improved as the amount of coupling agent increased from 0 to 11 wt%. PE-g-MA played a crucial role in the properties of plywood boards made with rHDPE and vHDPE by enhancing the interfacial bonding ability between the HDPE and adjacent veneers, leading to good stress propagation and improved mechanical properties. The properties of samples bonded with vHDPE were significantly more improved than those made with rHDPE, likely due to the presence of color pigments, additives, fillers, and impurities in the rHDPE, which made the coupling agent less effective. In addition, the results demonstrated that the samples made with rHDPE and vHDPE were superior to the plywood bonded with UF resin (control), and the optimal content of the coupling agent was found to be 8 and 11 wt%. These findings suggest that incorporating recycled HDPE films and using coupling agents, such as PE-g-MA, can produce high-quality plywood composite materials with improved mechanical and physical properties, providing an eco-friendly alternative to traditional UF resin-bonded plywood. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]