-

To determine the possibility of polystyrene waste utilization in particleboard manufacture, one layer laboratory panels with two variables of glue in five levels of 0,2.5,5,7.5 and 10 percent- and polystyrene in five levels of 0,5,10,15 and 20 percent were produced. Physical and mechanical properties of test panels were measured. The results showed that increasing the glue content improved all physical and mechanical properties of panels. The results also indicated that the amount of polystyrene had singificant influence on the panels' physical and mechanical properties-except for shear strength. According to the results, the best physical and mechanical properties of panels were obtained when using 10 percent glue and 15 or 20 percent polystyrene, but there were not any significant differences found between physical and mechanical properties of those panels and panels when using 5 percent glue and 20 percent polystyrene. Moreover no significant differences were observed between properties of reference panels and panels with 5 percent glue and 20 percent polystyrene. Therefore it can be
concluded that with 5 percent urea resin and 20 percent polystyrene, proper quality panels can be obtained and the resin consumption will be reduced.