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Breakthroughs with recycling advertising banners in Australia

For several months, a dedicated team led by the Vinyl Council has been making progress with the challenges of recycling advertising billboard skins. The team has achieved critical breakthrough results, some world ‘firsts’ and gained positive support from industry.

Currently over 1,200,000 m2 (500 tonnes) of advertising billboard skins go to landfills around Australia every year at a significant cost to business and as a waste of durable materials. Having promoted the latest blockbuster movie or a government safety message, the skins take up valuable space in landfills.

The challenge is that the skins are made of two excellent polymers (vinyl as a coating over woven polyester) which are hard to separate and reprocess - which is exactly why they are so suited for all weathers and conditions; they are UV and tear-resistant, waterproof, colour-fast, can be welded and are very tough. This is similar for other vinyl coated fabrics, including truck tarpaulins and grain covers, all of which currently go to landfill in Australia (total over 6,000 tonnes combined per year) and in most countries around the world.

In Europe, there is a €20M plant used to reprocess such material back to its constituent polymers. That solvent-based technology is not viable in Australia so the only option is to innovate and find economically viable alternative approaches and new products.

To support the research into this challenge, earlier this year the NSW Environment Trust has invested together with industry to enable collaboration between a team of keen and brilliant minds.

“Our team comprises skilled research assistants in chemistry at UNSW, industrial designers at Monash University, highly experienced PVC converters at Welvic Australia, innovative and successful manufacturers in PMG Engineering, and supplier Rojo Pacific who is keen to lead the advertising industry to a more sustainable future” explains Helen Millicer, Manager of the Industry Recycling Strategy at the Vinyl Council of Australia.

Together, the Vinyl Council and the Outdoor Media Association are providing industry-wide engagement and coordination.

“This problem is too big to do it alone and therefore we are delighted to have received funding support from the NSW Environment Trust as part of the NSW EPA’s Waste Less, Recycle More initiative” Helen added.

“A grant like this, that supports innovation and reprocessing in Australia, is a game changer. It means that we can manage a focused and properly resourced project with contributing partners to find viable products and end-market alternatives and thereby prevent loss of quality material to landfill.”

The outcome of the funded trials, research and testing has led to two innovative Australian mechanical recycling technologies, one of which is proceeding to patent.

Product design students on the team have produced several prototype industrial designs taking advantage of the features of the material, including highway sound barriers, children’s push bikes, and floor safety mats. Trials have also worked with cut, woven and reformed material and material welded into molds to create a stronger fabric skin. Reprocessed material has been trialled for 3-D printing in another world ‘first’.  

These developments have already led to specifications for a packaging product for trial with a major multinational company.

“Importantly, companies in the advertising industry met at an Industry Forum in Sydney in October and have given the green light to continue the project, to collaborate and contribute to finding a viable solution for recycling billboard skins in Australia”.

“We are delighted to have a team of brilliant minds, innovators and leaders in their fields contributing their time, expertise and facilities to find low cost solutions to this world-wide problem and sad waste of materials,” said Helen Millicer.

To complete the project in the next few months, the design prototypes will be finished and exhibited. A report will be published summarising the economics of collection, reprocessing and remaking of the billboard skins and the chemical and mechanical test results.

While this project has focussed on advertising banners in the first instance, it leads to the possibility of applying findings to other coated fabrics.  

For more information and photos contact:
Helen Millicer, Project Manager, Industry Recycling Strategy, Vinyl Council of Australia This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.,
0413 875 872, www.vinyl.org.au and http://www.environment.nsw.gov.au/grants/2015-problem-waste.htm

Lifting construction industry productivity and efficiency

A May 2016 report from the World Economic Forum titled Shaping the Future of Construction: A Breakthrough in Mindset and Technology highlighted the “moral obligation” of the engineering and construction industry to lift its game in terms of productivity and efficiency.

With aging infrastructure in developed countries and the needs of a rapidly growing urban population in developing regions, combined with the scale of resource consumption, emissions and waste currently existing in the construction sector, the industry has vast potential to make significant economic, social and environmental contributions. However, at a global level, productivity in the sector has remained largely stagnant for decades.

The WEF report discusses what holds the industry back and the risks of market disruption. It also speaks to the opportunities that already exist to improve project delivery and life cycle performance of the built environment through adoption of digitalisation; the take up of innovative technologies, materials and tools; and the use of new construction techniques and processes.

An “extremely powerful lever for innovation is that of construction materials” the report stated. The industry is the largest global consumer of raw materials (50 per cent of global steel production and more than 3 billion tonnes of raw materials). The built environment is also a major contributor to greenhouse gas emissions. This surely presents great opportunities for disruptive technologies. Advanced building materials will allow us to do more with less, using better, lean building processes.

Examples are given, including new material combinations with additional multi-functional characteristics; standardised, modular and prefabricated construction and just-in-time pull of resources.

With this is mind, it is good to see Australian manufacturing capacity in PVC permanent formwork systems continues to grow strongly as this construction technology gains ground and contributes to productivity gains.

Carlos Cagliero of Verve Constructions is managing a project which made a last-minute decision to switch to Vinyl Council member, AFS System's PVC permanent formwork wall construction, illustrating the potential efficiencies that can be gained through this emerging construction technology.

Stage 1 of a 407-apartment multi-residential project in Bundoora, Victoria, the project’s three-level basement was originally designed with precast concrete panels. However, it soon became apparent that this would require a turnaround of about four weeks to cover the development and review of shop drawings, production of panels and delivery of the panels to the site. This was problematic as it would cause a delay to the construction program, so Cagliero looked for another solution that would still meet the structural drawing requirements. He selected polymer-based permanent formwork.

As a result, there was a dramatic improvement in lead time as no shop drawings were required, the product was delivered to site in five days from order, and no cranes were required to install it. It required no contractor training for handling and construction, although like use of any new product, it required a little time to get going, Cagliero said. However, from order to completion took just two weeks.

“It resolved the problem and importantly allowed us to maintain our construction program,” Cagliero said.

Approximately 1600 square metres of the extruded PVC formwork was used to construct the basement walls and the lift core to ground level. Compliant to AS3600, this type of wall system is continuously reinforced. As a major benefit, no waterproofing was required despite a large retaining wall section. No caulking of joints was necessary either.

Also saving time was the fact that 70 per cent of the formwork has been left exposed in the basement areas, Cagliero added. After being cleaned off, the white panels are more attractive than blockwork and more reflective from a lighting perspective, he said, so it needed no painting in these areas.

Around the three levels of the basement lift core, it is “working perfectly” Cagliero explained, as it merged with the precast concrete panels above because the two systems are the same thickness, and the Macrender used on the PVC panels here has come up well, he added.

As this project – now a month away from completion – has shown, permanent PVC formwork can significantly improve construction productivity by reducing lead times and reducing installation costs, processes and time.

This type of wall system is most suited to basement scenarios and divisions between lower ground floors and basements, party walls, columns, retention tanks, stair cores, service and stormwater pits.

Article originally published in sourceable.net 21 October 2016