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Recycled plastic blocks


Jt77

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Can anyone tell me if these recycled plastic blocks would meet uk building regulations? Www.byfusion.com. These ones are manufactured in New Zealand and there doesn't seem to be an equivalent thing here. Why is no one building with these? I'd like to know if they're not legal/not practical /or what? Thanks. 

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1 hour ago, Jt77 said:

Why is no one building with these? I'd like to know if they're not legal/not practical /or what? Thanks. 

Do they have any kind of independent certification eg a BBA cert?

What is the (in)flammability like?

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These use a fairly standard process of reclaiming old plastic into a new product - this would be classed as an end of life recycle though as once you’ve mixed the plastics you can’t separate them. 

 

Essentially this is a regrinder creating a mix of different small plastic granules or chips of different types feeding a steam heated injection moulding machine. Of the list of plastics, there are a number of thermoset plastics (the PETs etc) and some thermoplastics (the vinyls). Mixing the two and heating them allows the thermoplastics to melt around the thermoset waste that will create a blended product that solidifies and locks in the different types of waste plastic. 

 

We do this now in the UK - it’s just formed into stuff you wouldn’t recognise such as bollards and park benches ...!! It is also usually an extruded product that is less dimensionally tolerant than injected waste. These guys have been at it for years. http://www.ecoplasticwood.com/

 

The big issue with it is that it needs a very close tolerance on the mix - too little thermoplastic waste and the matrix doesn’t form and the product drops to bits. In the UK they tend to manage this by using known regrind waste from plastic manufacturers (such as uPVC windows etc) and then add standard colours to it to make it uniform. Those bricks look like they are relying on the volume of pvc in the waste to be pretty uniform and that could be a real challenge with mixed plastic waste. 

 

Its unlikely it could get a UK BBA certificate as by it’s very definition it is an unknown mix so from a flammability and durability perspective you would not be able to guarantee what it was made from to meet any standards. 

 

 

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12 hours ago, Crofter said:

Don't you just love the English language :D

 

Absolutely. If it were easy, everyone would be doing it!

 

50 minutes ago, PeterStarck said:

I've always wondered why inflammable and flammable mean the same thing. 


We do say that something is "inflamed", so "inflammable" makes sense at least in that context. Annoying though, because "in" is used more often as a negative modifier.

 

From memory, "inflammable" means more flammable than, erm, "flammable" - or maybe it's the other way around.

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When I was on the committee of a local nature reserve where we used to live, we bought picnic benches made  of this stuff and despite a few serious attempts by local yobs, they were unable to get them to catch fire. I don't know what it was had been added to the plastic, but they were far less flammable than say wood. Seems a good use of waste material - though given that my BCO thinks SIPs are wildly exotic and keeps sending me back to question the suppliers every time he's visited so far, and even questions things with a BBA certificate, God knows what nonsense you'd go through being one of the first to build with something in the UK.

Edited by curlewhouse
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