A bridge made of recycled plastic over the River Tweed in Wales. And it is removable and entirely recyclable
He is about to end up run over, his mother saves himWe just learned that the Bridge over the Strait of Messina will not be built. The environmental impact would have been a real blow to the area. But try to imagine what would have happened if the bridge that was to connect Sicily and Calabria had been like the one built by the Welsh company Vertech, made with waste from the recycled plastic.
50 tons of waste transformed into a respectable engineering work. It is totally green. Designed by the engineers of Rutgers University and Cardiff University, the bridge was built elsewhere and then brought to Scotland along the River Tweed in County Peebleeshire where it was assembled in just four days. In total, the entire infrastructure construction process took less than two weeks.
How to read on Wired UK, there are numerous advantages associated with the use of recycled plastics for the construction of a bridge like the one built over the River Tweed.
In the first place it helps to dispose of a large amount of waste, transforming it into raw materials. It does not require regular maintenance and does not rust. Consequently it does not need to be repainted. Of course, it is also 100 percent recyclable. This means that one day, if the local community deems that the bridge is no longer useful, it can be dismantled and reassembled elsewhere.
Vertech co-founder and CEO William Mainwaring told a World Architecture News: “Thanks to this unique technology we are able to recycle on our own, to produce new, innovative, sustainable and high quality building materials for the European market”.
One of the company's goals is to make its recycled thermoplastic products increasingly available in the construction sector across Europe, replacing them with wood and laminated products. In the 2012 it is also hoped to set up a new manufacturing facility for thermoplastic composites in North Wales.
Francesca Mancuso
