Marley's plastic pipes recycling project

Marley Plumbing and Drainage, in collaboration with Stewart Milne Group and Ecoplas are trialling a new recycling initiative, aimed at reducing construction site waste from a pilot site in Aberdeen. Marley aims to explore the long-term viability for reclaiming plastic pipe off cuts and discarded fittings for recycling back into its production process.

On a new housing development at Broadshade in Westhill, the Stewart Milne Group will segregate any waste generated from the installation of gutter systems, downpipes, soil, waste, underground drainage, sewers or hot and cold water fittings into specialist waste bags.

These will be transported to an Ecoplas Ltd facility that specialises in PVC recycling operations, where they will be sorted into various types of plastic and products and the PVC waste materials granulated and pulverised for Marley to use within its manufacturing process.

Marley already recycles post production waste and this latest initiative is part of an on-going commitment to increase still further the level of recycled content within its products.

“We are constantly looking at new initiatives to incorporate sustainable PVC manufacturing and this project is helping us to determine our capabilities in terms of being able to take waste from the construction site back into production,” comments Tony Calton, Head of Innovation at Marley Plumbing at Drainage.

“The real challenge for Marley, as manufacturers, is to increase the use of recycled materials in our products, but to ensure that they maintain the same high quality performance and fitness for purpose. We see this as essential if we are to achieve our ultimate goal of developing a true "closed loop" recycling process.”