Wooden look for furniture from reused plastic

From helping UAE residents rest outdoors to enabling them to Rest In Peace, one UAE company is committed to doing it the environmental way.

Eco Plastic Industries, established in 1995 by the Khoury family, is a manufacturer with a difference – they make their “wood out of reused plastic”. Ten tonnes of plastic that is delivered to the company’s factories each day to be recycled is processed, broken down, dyed various shades, put through a “texturiser” that coats the plastic in wooden grains, and then turned into various products.

Their bread and butter is outdoor decking, furniture and gazebos, but now they are also manufacturing headstones and “planks” that sit on top of coffins.

The latest foray is part of a deal with the Dubai Municipality.

Saving trees from the axe

The company’s sales manager Diogo Teixeira says while the products can cost more than cheaper wooden alternatives, they are actually cheaper than good quality wood, more durable and termite-free. They also have the twin environmental benefits of saving trees and disposing of unused and non-biodegradable plastic. The Brazilian says it is good for staff morale too.

“Can you imagine you’re saving (the environment)? Sometimes I look outside, I look at the trees and I look at the birds on top, and it’s so nice to imagine we’re doing our part.”

If trees and birds sound strange for the Jebel Ali Industrial Zone where the company is based, Eco Plastic is trying to do things a little differently. The grounds on which the company’s factories and offices sit, amid huge bags of plastic waiting to be recycled, are dotted with trees, birds and even saluki dogs. Teixeira even has plans for a lake, as expansion plans for the business get under way.

It is here that companies deliver their bags of old plastic waste — “this is better for us because we don’t have to extract metals (like we would from household waste), there’s no risk of contamination.” In some cases, the plastic is pierced with a skeleton of reinforced steel, which makes their products even hardier.

“It doesn’t mean we will give you a 100-year warranty, but what we are talking about is plastic (that doesn’t biodegrade). The problem becomes a good solution in this case.”

But are the environmental benefits of recycling this plastic undone by all the energy required to turn the waste into something usable?

“The energy required to produce plastic is more than that to recycle, so you save.”

It is also, he says, less than cutting down, planing, treating, and varnishing trees.

Aside from the graveyard “planks”, the company has also manufactured other novel products in their work for hotels, airlines, the government and the Ruler’s Court. Recently, they even created sun loungers out of plastic, now sitting by Dubai apartment block pools, for Coca-Cola. Teixeira hopes more private companies, such as in the oil and gas sector, will also get on board. As the world becomes more environmentally conscious, who knows where they may go next!

“(The Khoury family) opened the first paper recycling factory in the UAE, saw the quantity of plastic and decided to do something about it. And now here we are.”

amanda@khaleejtimes.com