Wood-plastic composite (commonly abbreviated as WPC) is a non-recyclable composite material lumber or timber made of recycled plastic and wood wastes.
There are also application in the market, which utilize only virgin raw materials. Its most widespread use is in outdoor deck floors, but it is also used for railings, fences, landscaping timbers, cladding and siding, park benches, molding and trim, window and door frames, and indoor furniture.
Manufacturers claim that wood-plastic composite is more environmentally friendly and requires less maintenance than the alternatives of solid wood treated with preservatives or solid wood of rot-resistant species. Resistant to cracking and splitting, these materials can be moulded with or without simulated wood grain details. Even with the wood grain design these materials are still visually easy to distinguish from natural timber as the grains are the same uniform color as the rest of the material. Well-known trade names include Practiwood, NewTech, TimberTech, Trex, JER Envirotech, CorrectDeck, Artowood, Chylon, Ultradeck and Weatherbest.
Wood-plastic composite is still a very new material relative to the long history of natural lumber as a building material but can be substituted in most instances. Although being highly resistant to rot, Wood Plastic Composites still soak up water due to their mixing with organic wood fibers.
Wood-plastic composite lumber is composed of wood from recovered saw dust (and other cellulose-based fiber fillers such as pulp fibers, peanut hulls, bamboo, straw, digestate, etc.) and virgin or waste plastics including high-density polyethylene, PVC, PP, ABS, PS and PLA.
Source: Wikipedia