Fantastic plastic sets sights on construction

A UK company claims it has developed a smarter way to use recycled plastic as a sustainable building material.

I-plas, the name of the material and the company distributing it, has claimed its product is made from recycled polymers, which makes it versatile for a range of uses from bridges, footpaths and fences and even flood prevention.

The company claims that it is the only business in the UK to produce the material which it says will not chip or splinter and is even vandal proof. One tonne of i-plas saves about 1.66 tonnes of C02, whereas producing a tonne of concrete generates almost a tonne of C02 emissions, the company claims.

“Not only is it a great material in its own right, the environmental benefits are huge,” said i-plas managing director Howard Waghorn. “Why use concrete with its enormous environmental cost, when there is now an alternative that performs better and has no environmental impact?"

Annually three million tonnes of plastic waste is created in the UK and only seven per cent is recycled, i-plas has claimed. Environmental organisations, such as Friend of the Earth, warn that harmful chemicals are often used in the creation and disposal, for example incineration of plastics, including dioxins, phthalates, and brominated flame retardants.

Despite the alleged versatility of i-plas, the company said that it cannot use PVC or thermo-set plastics such as polyurethane in its production process.

The material has already been used for some commercial construction projects, as well as academic trials including tiles made from i-plas being used a green roofing project run by the University of Sheffield.

The company has also been in talks with the organisers of the 2012 London Olympics, who are keen to use recycled materials in as many of the construction projects as possible.

According to Waghorn, the material was originally developed by two local authorities in Halifax who used the technology to create picnic tables and other garden furniture. But the new management team took over the company in 2006 with the aim of expanding the use of i-plas. “We took over in 2006 because the product was being used in a limited way for a product that we thought was superb,” he said.

The strength of i-plas is that it makes use of blended or mixed plastics which are often not usable by most plastic recycles and consequently end up in the waste stream. “A vast amount of mixed plastic ends up in landfill because some local authorities don’t know any better, and it is not suitable for most recyclers,” said Waghorn.

Alongside the i-plas business, Waghorn also operates a standard plastic recycling company with a 160,000 square foot premises devoted to recycling, manufacturing and distribution which can process up to 6,000 tonnes of mixed waste plastic.