Recycled plastic drainage pipes made from milk bottles and other recyclables are being installed at Forbes Shire Council’s quarries in New South Wales.
RPM Pipes will supply the sustainable pipes, which are made from 100 per cent recycled plastic that is sourced from kerbside waste and manufacturing scrap.
The company expects this will prevent thousands of plastic bottles from entering landfill, by giving the plastic waste a second life. RPM Pipes chief executive officer Terry Kay said the new pipes will prevent the equivalent of 80,000 plastic milk bottles from entering landfill.
“Our pipes are the around the same price and exactly the same quality as non-recycled pipes that are currently used across Australia, but the big difference is that we recycle the equivalent of up to 5000 milk bottles with every pipe that we sell,” he said.
“Forbes Shire Council have recognised that they can create a big win for ratepayers and for the environment – without any compromise on quality or cost.”
RPM Pipes has been supplying pipes for agriculture and mining for 20 years.
“We have the capacity to be recycling a million milk bottles each week if other councils choose to reconsider what they use for stormwater drains in parks, quarries and down the sides of almost every street in the country,” Kay said.
According to the Forbes Advocate, the council was seeking a way to improve the sustainability of its quarries.
The 192-metre drainage project will use 100 per cent recycled stormwater pipes for new drainage.
“Like residents across Forbes, I want to know that the milk bottle left behind after my coffee and the detergent bottle that I have just used up are going to be recycled, not sent to landfill,” Forbes Shire Council mayor Phyllis Miller said.
“By choosing to use these 100 per cent recycled pipes from RPM Pipes, Forbes is keen to demonstrate that we can support the recycling sector without any additional cost or compromises in the quality of our infrastructure.
“We need to see that the containers and materials we recycle are put to good use – and RPM Pipes are a great example of that.”
RPM recycles the equivalent of 8.3 million milk bottles for every one kilometre of RPM pipe laid, the company claimed.