The image of crumbling particleboard (PB) furniture protruding from urban dumpsters is the Achilles heel of the wood panel industry. An entire sector is tarnished by the bottom-line mentality of some furniture producers and consumers. By choosing an inferior veneer/facing applied to the lowest density particle board, both the consumer and the manufacturer pocket a few dollars in savings. Unfortunately, the environment has to bear the costs in wasted resources and landfill run-offs.

(1) PB = poor application   (2) PB = good application

Superior panels to PB exist for most furniture applications - medium density fibreboard (MDF), plywood and (most recently) agriboard (AB). As PB is less expensive to produce, those savings could be used to produce a superior panel with increased quality/density and substantial face veneers. Then it would have a life expectancy close to its competitors.

(3) MDF     (4) Appleply (1)     (5) Agriboard

PB, MDF and AB can all claim a major environmental advantage - they are made mainly of waste or recycled wood fibre. Some would argue that plywood, with its requirement for large pristine logs, is the least eco-friendly panel, but even that position can be questioned. Plywood is less susceptible to degrade because of high moisture resistance and boasts the highest strength-to-weight ratio of any panel. The most important consideration in eco-design is to minimize the quantity of material needed for the task. The following chart shows the relationship between weight (density) and bending strength for common furniture panels.

Agriboard, the new panel on the block, is produced from agricultural "waste" such as wheat or rice straw. Typically, this new panel is made with a polyurethane-based binding adhesive, which does not produce the negative out-gassing and health consequences of formaldyhyde - urea-formaldyhyde is used in the manufacture of PB amd MDF panels (2). Agriboard is denser than PB, lighter than MDF and more resistant to moisture-swelling than PB or MDF. Unfortunately the Canadian plant producing Woodstalk (a wheat straw-based panel) was closed by Dow BioProducts, a division of Dow Canada on December 31, 2005. New agrifibre and/or no-added formaldehyde-panels are expected to be released in 2008 and this page will be updated when they are available.

The following chart lists the mechanical properties of two generic and one proprietary wood panels. As VCR was not able to confirm whether the two data sources [(3), (4)] used identical testing procedures, apply this data accordingly.