Recycled trolley prototype - designed by Katie Davies

A GCSE product design student, Katie Davies, contacted us recently with a request for some of our 100% recycled plastic lumber in order to build a prototype of a trolley in eco-friendly material.

Always keen to explore new uses for the product, and show the potential of the material, we sent some out post-haste.

The students local authority provides residents with lightweight flimsy reusable bags which are used to collect garden waste for recycling. The trolley was designed to allow people to pull the bag to the kerbside, preventing the bag from tearing, and making the job a lot easier!

The result is fantastic, and certainly solves the problem it was designed for:



The handle was filed down to made it more comfortable to grip, and a hinged back panel was added so the waste bag can be dragged onto the base of the trolley without having to lift it.

The finished product is solid, durable and environmentally friendly, making the project a great success. We are certainly impressed with not only the finished product, but also the initiative and creativity of Katie. A bright future in product design could await!

Heres One I RE:made Earlier

(Click the picture to enlarge)

British Recycled Products have donated one of our 100% recycled plastic seats to Ross on Wye council for use by the town. The prize was part of a junkk.com competition 'Heres One I RE:made earlier' to find innovative ideas on how to reuse plastic.

The competition was won by a group of students from a school in Ross-on-Wye who designed a system for stacking teacups made by reusing a plastic drinks bottle. The winners decided to donate the seat to the local community, a brilliant gesture that allows the people of Ross-on-Wye to make use of our durable, zero maintenance and attractive seat for many years to come.

We are delighten to see young people engaging in environmental issues and coming up with ways to reduce, reuse and recycle, and also thinking of the community in donating the seat. A good show all round!

Floods, SUDS and new legislation

I have written a number of times on the perils of impermeable surfaces when it comes to Britains flood defences, and the need for action on the issue.

As the area of impermeable surfaces continues to grow it becomes harder for rainwater to seep into the ground and instead runs off into rivers and the sewerage system. This puts a strain on our Victorian infrastructure at the best of times, and when rainfall is heavy flooding is inevitable as sewers overflow and rivers break their banks.

This was amply illustrated in recent flooding of Cockermouth, and the 2007 floods across Britain (The Environment Agency calculated that two-thirds of the flooding experienced in the UK in 2007 was caused by surface water overwhelming the sewerage system).


This serious flooding caused billions of pounds worth of damage to property (and that figure is set to rise exponentially in the future), but more importantly causes untold misery for those affected, and even loss of life.


Measures are already in place to encourage organisations to adopt permeable surfaces, such as the 'Rain Tax' (see my previous blog on the subject for more details) and planning permissions, and a change of attitude is definitely underway in Government, town planning, architects and the construction industry.

However, the rate of conversion of impermeable surfaces to permeable is very small, and many new private developments do not incorporate SuDS (sustainable urban development strategies) into the design and construction, whether it be driveways, car parks or pathways.

I recently spoke to the owner of a company specialising in driveways who said SUDS / water permeable surfaces were not a concern to him, and he didn't want the bother of finding permeable alternatives when laying tarmac is cheaper and easier. He also said he knew he could get around any existing SUDS legislation as no one was enforcing it.

The first point to make is that if you are laying tarmac properly it will be far more expensive than using water permeable paving such as our Hebden 40 (I make no apology for plugging it, as it is a fantastic product, and 100% recycled).

Secondly that is a terrible attitude to take when ones company can either be part of the problem or part of the solution, and doesn't display much forward thinking.

Thirdly, he is right about being able to get away with it at the moment. There have been cases where developers have been held liable for damage caused by flooding where the potential consequences were known and where steps could have been taken to address it (e.g. Lambert v Barratt Homes Limited (Manchester Division) [2009] EWHC 744 (QB)). However this is very much the exception. Existing legislation is not tough enough to tackle this problem, and is not compelling people to change the way they approach the issue.

However, that is set to change with the introduction of the Flood and Water Management Bill from Defra, currently being debated in parliament (and highlighted in the Queen's Speech), which draws heavily on the recommendations of Sir Michael Pitt's review of the floods of 2007.

As part of a wide ranging set of measures designed to mitigate the risk of flooding, water permeable surfacing will become an integral part of our future landscape.

The bill proposes that the drainage system for all new developments or redevelopments needs to be approved by new council-run SUDS approving bodies, taking account of new national standards for sustainable drainage systems (to be drafted in spring 2010). "This covers the building or a structure where the ability of the land to absorb rainwater is affected, and includes construction of roads" (source).

It also compels local and highways authorities to contribute to and maintain sustainable development in order to reduce their flood risk. In addition, the proposals include removing the automatic right to connect to a public sewer on all new developments. One of Pitt's conclusions was that the right to connect to a sewer is one of the main reasons SUDS are rarely adopted in new developments, despite the well publicised financial and environmental benefits.

The bill is expected to become law this year, and will hopefully go along way in equipping the nation to deal with the increased flood risk and in time significantly reduce the flood risk. Therefore SUDS will become a routine feature of all new construction, and is well worth paying close attention to now to ensure you remain ahead of the curve.

The links below provide simple guidance on what the Bill means for:

Property Developers

Local Authorities (and funding for Local Authorities)

Individuals

Please contact British Recycled Products if you have any questions about the practicalities and costs of creating hard standing with our water permeable Hebden 40 ground reinforcement system, or guidance on installation, so you are future proofed and thus able to react to any changes with ease and without disruption.
The product is quick and easy to install and incredible value for money. It can easily bear the weight of all UK legal vehicles, and creates attractive hard standing finished with gravel or grass. It is made in Britain from 100% recycled plastic diverted from landfill. It shows that the changes on the horizon are not a cause for concern, but a chance to improve our built environment

Open and closed loop recycling

WRAP state that the UK consumes over 5 million tonnes of plastic annually, much of which is disguarded. This is so wasteful financially and environmentally that something needs to be done to address it. In the absence of serious investment in improving the nations recycling infrastructure, many companies are establishing their own recycling schemes as part of Corporate Social Responsibility pledges.

British Recycled Products can offer both open and closed loop recycling to businesses and organisations of all sizes, as an effective waste management solution.

We are often asked what the difference between open and closed loop recycling is, and the two terms are often mixed up, even by professionals!

The idea of a recycling loop is that an organisation or company teams up with a recycler to efficiently recycle its own waste, receiving it back for reuse. It is a system that is increasingly being adopted in order to minimise the waste created in the business world, while proving very cost effective.

Open loop recycling is where waste plastic of all kinds is taken away and remade into a variety of different products for use by the company. For example, a company might send us a range of plastics consumed by the business such as packaging, offcuts, damaged goods and redundant fittings to be recycled, and have our recycled plastic lumber or outdoor furniture redelivered in its place.

Closed loop recycling is where used or damaged plastic products are remade into the exact same product again and returned to the organisation. For example Tesco might send us damaged bollards to be recycled into new ones, saving the product being discarded and providing a top quality replacement without extra materials costs.

British Recycled Products are keen to sign up new businesses and organisations for this system, please get in touch if you would like to discuss possibilities

Bespoke boardwalk design

British Recycled Products are delighted to have teamed up with a highly experienced national decking and boardwalk installation firm, and are now able to combine our state-of-the-art design services with their unsurpassed practical skills.

This means we can now see your bespoke projects through from a glimmer of an idea to the reality of a long lasting, maintenance-free structure on the ground.

The tide is turning against the use of tropical hardwood in decking and boardwalk construction, and our 100% recycled plastic alternative offers real practical and financial incentives to go green.

For one, the durability of the product significantly lowers the whole-life-cost of any project. The decking and supports will not rot, and do not need painting or treating with chemicals, offering significant savings on maintenance and replacement costs.

Another major selling point of our recycled plastic decking is the fact that it is non-slip, because of the surface texture created in the manufacturing process. This makes the product safter than traditional wood alternatives, especially in wet conditions (a downloadable slip-test report is avaliable from British Recycled Products main website here). Composite recycled plastic also retains latent heat efficiently, resulting in a reduced frost/ice hazard for users of walkways or hard standing during cold periods.


The decking is vandal resistant because the texture does not allow spraypaint etc to adhere to the surface. This, coupled with the fact that the material is chemically inert and non porus thus preventing paint getting into the grain, means graffiti can very easily be wiped off.

The superior strength of the recycled plastic lumber in comparison with wood also means the material is much harder to damage by force.

The environmental benefits of choosing recycled plastic decking are huge: for every 1.5m section of boardwalk 1500 plastic bottles are reused, diverted away from landfill where the material would go to waste, while leaching chemicals into the ground.

Plastic is made from oil. Oil is a finite resource that will one day run out, and it seems crazy that so much of it is wasted by disposing of plastic rather than reusing it. In addition to this, the hugely dangerous deforestation of our planet, especially of the critically important rainforests, is in part fuelled by the desire for virgin wood for products such as decking. This approach is not sustainable, which is why now is the time for purchasing habits to switch to recycled alternatives. This happening on a mass scale would be massivily beneficial to the future of our planet, which is the biggest benefit I can possibly give for choosing our recycled plastic decking!


Visit the decking and walkways section of our website for more information, and get in touch if you would like further information, or a design to suit your needs.

Working with recycled plastic lumber

One of the most frequently asked questions our customers have regarding our recycled plastic lumber is whether it can be cut and worked in the same way as wood.



As the video illustrates, the lumber can easily be cut to any length using normal cutting equipment. It can also be cut easily with a hand saw. The material can be drilled and takes screws in the same way as wood. For more information, visit our website

The benefits of using recycled plastic lumber are clear: it will not rot, splinter and has greater strength than wood. Once people know that the material does not limit construction in any way, they tend to be converted!

Get guidance on recycling