Plaswood delivers benches made from plastic river waste

Plaswood has manufactured and delivered the UK’s first picnic bench made from plastic recovered from a riverbed.

The accomplishment forms part of a partnership project between West Cumbria Rivers Trust and the Environment Agency.

The River Keekle restoration project, the largest of its kind in the UK, involves the removal of an environmentally damaging plastic liner from a 2.5km stretch of the Cumbrian river.

Nine tonnes of plastic have been removed from a 170-metre trial site in the recently completed first phase of the project and the riverbed restored with stone.

The plastic was heading for landfill until Plaswood offered to collect the material from the site to demonstrate how it could be recycled to create useful second-life products.

All the plastic removed from the River Keekle was sent to Plaswood’s recycling plant in Dumfries for shredding, cleaning and remanufacture into recycled plastic lumber, from which the company makes its end products. The process diverts waste from landfill and provides a valuable, sustainable and long-lasting alternative to hardwood, that itself can be recycled at the end of its use.

To mark the achievement, the company has donated a picnic bench made from the collected plastic to the West Cumbria Rivers Trust.

Katherine Lorek-Wallace, General Manager at Plaswood, said: “We’ve helped to turn a potential environmental problem into a solution by creating second-life Plaswood benches that can be enjoyed by the public for years to come. Our work with the West Cumbria Rivers Trust and the Environment Agency is a great example of the circular economy.”

The project is part of the Environment Agency’s River Restoration Programme in Cumbria.