Sixty-three
metric tons of plastic trash will be converted to synthetic lumber for a new
railroad bridge in Vancouver, BC.
Engineers
specified plastic lumber for the project in place of pressure treated wood.
"Major
advantages of Altwood (plastic lumber) in this project are that it does not
absorb water, will never rot, will not leach toxins into the soil or water and
is safe for the workers to handle with their bare hands, none of which is true
for pressure-treated wood, a toxic alternative," says Brian Burchill, manager
of Syntal Products. Syntal is
making the material for the $43 million Lynn Creek Rail Bridge and Brooksbank
Avenue Underpass project in North Vancouver, BC.
One of the
ironies of the project though is rail cars using the bridge may be shipping
local plastic waste overseas instead of using it in local projects.
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In one of the ironies of trash plastics' economics, the locally discarded milk bottles, yogurt containers and other waste is collected and sent to dealers, many of whom ship to buyers in China. That stream was set up under an eight year contract with another company that collects and sells plastics waste in the area.
Syntal Products solicits waste drop-off at two locations in British Columbia and also buys plastics waste from other municipalities, local manufacturers and dealers.
Another problem is that the plastic waste is often not clean.
"Society still treats used plastics as trash," says Burchill. "Hence, much of the plastics we receive contain so much food residue in it that we cannot use those plastics in our process. Also, the collection systems commingle the plastics with metal and/or glass, which either make the plastics unusable, or cause very labor-intensive sorting to be required to extract usable plastics from the mix."
Syntal can produce final product at a rate of about 500 lbs/hr. The company was established in 1995 and is the first plant designed and commissioned by Industrial Recycling Systems Corp. a distributor for Julien Environmental Technology s.a., a world leader in commingled thermoplastics recycling technology.