As part of our R&D on green matters, we have invested heavily in a project to produce ‘Plastic Wood’. Our major stake-holding in a company will forge a partnership to successfully recycle materials which are harmful to the environment.

There are many applications for Plastic Wood in the market. The most widespread use is in outdoor deck floors, but it is also used for railings, fences, landscaping timbers, cladding and siding, park benches, window and door frames, and outdoor furniture.

Plastic Wood is more environmentally friendly and requires less maintenance than the alternatives of solid wood treated with preservatives or rot-resistant solid wood types. Resistant to cracking and splitting, these materials can be molded with or without simulated wood grain details.

Plastic Wood is still a very new material relative to the long history of natural lumber as a building material and is tipped to revolutionise the way we construct the various applications mentioned above. Besides being highly resistant to rot, the major advantage of this category of building materials is its ability to add another stage of upstream use to materials previously considered waste.

Not only does this whole process continue the lifespan of used and discarded materials, once produced, it can be recycled easily in to a new Plastic Wood composite.

By using scrapped cartridge cases this re-cycling process will take cartridges bounded for landfill sites and make good use of their materials. We shred these plastics, together with our empty toner bottles (milk bottle type plastic - high-density polyethylene) and then combine with wood wastes i.e. from recovered saw dust and other cellulose-based fiber fillers such as pulp fibers, peanut hulls, bamboo, straw, digestate, etc.

The resulting powder/fibers are mixed to a dough-like consistency and then made available for manufacturers to extrude or mould in to the desired shape. They are then able to use additives such as colorants, coupling agents, stabilizers, blowing agents, reinforcing agents, foaming agents, lubricants to help tailor the end product to the target area of application. The material is formed into both solid and hollow profiles or into injection molded parts and products.

As well as being moisture-resistant and resistant to rot, another major advantage over wood is the ability of the material to be molded to meet almost any desired spatial conditions. It can also be bent and fixed to form strong arching curves. With up to 70 percent cellulose content (although 50/50 is more common), wood-plastic composites behave like wood and can be shaped using conventional woodworking tools. A major selling point of these materials is their lack of need for paint as they are manufactured in a variety of colors, but are widely available in grays and earth tones.