Welsh firm builds plastic house

A Welsh company has developed a house made out of 18 tonnes of recycled plastic. Affresol of Swansea has worked for the past two years with Cardiff and Glamorgan universities, the Building Research Establishment (BRE) and the Carbon Trust developing the product which uses which uses a patented low energy process to convert waste plastics into strong structural elements.

The new material called Thermo Poly Rock (TPR) is made into panels which can be bolted together to form the load bearing frame of the house which can then be externally clad with brick, block or stone, with the interior insulated and plastered as any other house. The roof is tiled from recycled materials. The company estimates the life of the houses at more than 60 years and that the TPR elements are recyclable at the end of their useful life.

The company is awaiting BRE accreditation before building 19 homes in Merthyr in a pilot project.

Ian McPherson, managing director of Affresol said - “We are aiming to attain the level five of the Code for Sustainable Homes - at the moment many housebuilders claim it is not economically viable to build homes to that standard but we are confident our product can help bridge that gap.”

Affresol forecasts building 3,000 homes annually in year three - recycling 40,000 tonnes of waste - with the main market being affordable homes for social housing while their modular portable buildings can be used as classrooms, offices, showrooms, storage, and construction site offices.