Recycled plastic plywood could change the face of construction sites

Ecosheet, which is made from recycled waste mixed plastics and is itself 100 per cent recyclable at the end of 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 in the UK, for the Building Schools for the Future project (BSF). BSF is the biggest-ever school buildings investment programme, which will rebuild or renew nearly every secondary school in England.

2K Manufacturing, the company behind the Ecosheet product, is expecting healthy order books when it begins full-scale production at its first manufacturing plant in Luton, where 30,000 tonnes of waste plastic, which would otherwise go to landfill, will be used.

It has plans to open a further 10 plants across the country, The Luton plant is the first of 11 plants to be opened by the company in the UK, giving it the capacity to produce 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.

The technology takes a variety of mixed waste plastic and through a unique process – Powder Impression Moulding – turns it into a versatile and strong plastic composite material.

2K says it provides a solution for the issue of five million tonnes of waste plastic produced each year, 80 per cent of which goes to landfill. Over 25 million plywood sheets are used a year in the UK that are not recyclable and have to be landfilled as waste, at a great expense to the industry, says 2K.

“The UK has mountains of plastic waste, the majority of which goes into landfill each year and cannot currently be recycled,” comments Omer Kutluoglu, co-founder of 2K. “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 said the company was “delighted to be the first company to use this innovative product from the Luton plant. Our strategy is to identify new and innovative construction products that continually improve the delivery on projects and EcoSheet is an excellent example of this.”

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

2K will showcase its Ecosheet at the sustainable construction exhibition, Ecobuild, in early March.