Environmental Business Resources
Library

Hoardings made out traditional plywood could soon become a thing of the past on many of the United Kingdom"s (UK"s) construction sites thanks to an innovative recycled plastic plywood that is going into full-scale production this coming month March (2010).

The name of this new recycled plastic plywood is Ecosheet, which is made from recycled waste mixed plastics and is itself 100 per cent recyclable at the end of its life, has already been extensively trialled at the Bovis Retail Development in St David"s, Wales, and is being adopted by Wates construction, one of the leading providers of education facilities construction within the United Kingdom (UK), for the Building Schools for the Future project (BSF).

2K Manufacturing; based in Hampstead, London is the company behind the new Ecosheet product, is expecting to build a healthy order book for the recycled plastic plywood, when it begins full-scale production at its first manufacturing plant in Luton, Bedfordshire, where 30,000 tonnes of waste plastic, which would otherwise go to landfill, will be used in the making of the Ecosheets.

The company is planning to open a further 11 plants across the country, The Luton plant being the first to be opened by the company in the United Kingdom (UK), giving it the capacity to produce around four million Ecosheets a year and develop its plastic end product, so that it is suitable for many other uses, such as caravans, signage and for hospital cubicles.

2K Manufacturing was formed in January 2007 to manufacture industrial products from recovered waste plastics using its new technology, Powder Impression Moulding, which when combined with a rigorous process, allows it to take co-mingled polymer waste and re-manufacture it into high-performance, environmentally sustainable products.

2K Manufacturing; says that it provides a solution for the issue of the five million tonnes of waste plastic produced each year, 80 per cent of which is going into landfill. Over 25 million plywood sheets are used a year within the United Kingdom (UK) which are not recyclable because of the glues used to make the veneers and which have to be landfilled as waste, at a great expense to the industry, says 2K Manufacturing.

“The United Kingdom (UK) has mountains of plastic waste, the majority of which is going straight into landfill each year and cannot currently be recycled,” says Omer Kutluoglu, co-founder of 2K Manufacturing, adding that; “We can take a huge variety of mixed plastic waste, from construction site waste, supermarket signage and packaging, to yoghurt pots or even biros and turn it into a fantastic high performance product for the construction and sign industry. The panel is robust, versatile and suitable for many applications.”

Michael Coyle, Project Manager from Wates says that Wates was; “delighted to have been the first company to use this innovative product from the Luton plant in Bedfordshire. Our strategy is to identify new and innovative construction products that continually improve the delivery on projects and Ecosheet is we believe an excellent example of this.”

2K Manufacturing; originally secured its launch funding from the Foresight Group, a leading investor in green and ethical investments and also from the East of England Development Agency (EEDA).

2K Manufacturing; will be showcasing its Ecosheet at the sustainable construction exhibition, Ecobuild; on the 2nd, 3rd and 4th of March at Earls Court, London (2010).