Market trends
New life for waste plastic as concrete aggregate Text and photography by David Beer, on behalf of the Cement Manufacturers Association (CMA) CRDC South Africa, a wholly owned subsidiary of CRDC Global (Center for Regenerative Design and Collaboration), is in the vanguard of a global initiative to divert plastic waste from landfills and convert it into RESIN8, a man-made Eco aggregate. RESIN8 is currently being produced at four pilot plants globally, in Cape Town, Costa Rica, the USA, and the United Kingdom.
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ounded in 2018, CRDC Global works with leading waste management and construction companies around the world and partners with international organisations such as Habitat for Humanity and the UNDP (United Nations Development Programme). Headquartered in Ireland, the company also operates out of offices in Australia, Mexico, New Zealand, Hong Kong and the UK. In September 2021, the AEPW (Alliance to End Plastic Waste) and CRDC Global announced a partnership to expand CRDC’s footprint in North America with the development of a full-scale 1 300m² production plant in York, Pennsylvania, as well as expanding the facility in Costa Rica to a full-scale production plant that will absorb the majority of Costa Rica’s plastic waste. CRDC also intends ramping up its South African plant in Cape Town to full-scale commercial capacity by mid-2022, followed by full-scale plants in Gauteng and Durban. Tested rigorously for two years, RESIN8 meets stringent building standards in the US, African and Latin American
Waste plastic prior to processing
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Concrete Trends Issue 1 2022
countries and exceeds ASTM standards, the international benchmark for material performance. CRDC Global’s patented low-carbon process accepts any type of plastic waste for conversion into RESIN8. “RESIN8 is a working example of the circular economy with the potential to scale globally,” says Donald Thomson, the founder and chairman of CRDC. “We are successfully transforming the plastic waste stream into an appreciating value stream for the concrete, construction and housing industries. “RESIN8 can be used in precast and in-situ concrete applications and is the only material sourced from plastic waste which improves the performance of concrete, increasing compression strength, fire resistance, thermal performance and acoustic properties.”
HOW RESIN8 IS MANUFACTURED Developed by and for the construction industry, RESIN8 is produced by grinding waste plastic into flakes and mixing it with two additives. This material is melted, extruded and granulated
