Eco decking a step up
A BELLARINE Peninsula manufacturer of PVC fencing has developed a hi-tech process that will allow waste plastic to be recycled into a new decking material.
The Think Fencing innovation will divert tough-to-recycle PVC products, such as pipe offcuts and used store loyalty cards, from going to landfill.
Set to come online by the end of the year, the $500,000 project involves marrying the company’s technical solution with state-of-theart plastic extrusion equipment.
Based in Portarlington, Think Fencing makes a wide range of customised rural and residential fencing as well as racing club fencing systems and racetrack rails, the latter in collaboration with Adelaide company Simtrack.
Company founder and managing director Jack Fitzgerald said Think Fencing had been developing the technology to create the decking since setting out to address the challenges of using recycled plastics in its feedstock about four years ago.
“We are excited to create a decking product out of 95 per cent recycled PVC that was destined to landfill,” Mr Fitzgerald said.
It is anticipated that up to 50 tonnes of waste PVC, collected from construction sites, pipe companies and loyalty card producers, will be processed each month at Think Fencing.
The decking will be capped by an acrylic-based capping layer to accommodate slip resistance and colour requirements with the product to provide an alternative to other composite decking types.
Mr Fitzgerald said a key was using laser technology, such as that used in drones and self-driving cars, to develop a real-time feedback loop analysing the chemical composition of the materials as they went through the extrusion process.
“We have perfected it on our current equipment,” he said.
“With everything we have learnt we have ordered state-of-the-art extrusion technology out of Austria to really take things forward.”
Think Fencing, founded by Mr Fitzgerald when he was a schoolboy in 2001, has boomed in recent years on the back of a strategic decision about seven years ago to provide its clients an end-to-end service, including design, customisation and fabrication.
Mr Fitzgerald estimated that in the past four years the company had grown from consuming around 10 tonnes of finished PVC product a month to now putting through about 100 tonnes a month. Its workforce has more than quadrupled in that time with its current 20 staff set to grow again as the new decking comes onto the market.
The company is finding a commitment to provide end-to-end solutions, back-up service and being Australian made has positioned it to compete against homogenous imported products, particularly now with imported products facing greater lead times.
“Since the coronavirus was announced, we have employed five new people,” Mr Fitzgerald said.
He said about half the business was in rural and residential fencing, about 20 per cent in racetrack rails and the rest in a range of aligned plastic products, including low rise ventilation ducting “Ecoduct”.
About 15 per cent of the total range is exported.
Mr Fitzgerald said the company was about to export its racetrack rails to Hong Kong’s prestigious race clubs, giving the company a valuable beachhead into the international racing market, with an exciting new project about to be announced.