Welsh powder press invention turns waste wood, waste metal and plastics into bullet proof panels and more.

In the SASL we've long heard about the benefits of grinding construction waste on site. Such ground waste can sometimes be used as mulch, aggregate or a soil amendment. At the very least grinding substantially reduces the volume sent to a landfill.

But September 26, 2008 a Welsh company Protomax Plastics announced the creation of the P2 Machine which goes far beyond any waste grinder in use to date. Its birth announcement got little notice in the US but if its promise comes to fruition it will have long reaching effects on construction and waste handling.

They say:

We have recently designed, built and registered a patent on the P2 powder press. The P2 takes mixed waste and turns it into useful products such as hoardings, partition walls, transport trolleys and even armoured panels.

The machine creates an outer skin of recycled plastic around a core of re-processed, sanitised mixed waste. The waste is reprocessed with a special formula, which makes it foam and create a solid light- weight panel or product. The waste can include elements of metal or wood, alongside plastic bags, bottles and industrial plastics.

Each panel or product can be made up to customer specification, the P2 machine can produce a simple foam filled panel, or a bullet proof door with all ducting and necessary fire ratings required by the customer. Both products would use a high level of mixed waste

This means that it would no longer be necessary to waste wood for hoardings (Construction Fencing )or shuttering, and then throw it away. Panels can even be coloured and contoured for shed roofing or partition walls.

The machine is mobile and could be used to produce modular emergency housing in crisis areas, where the locals could re-use much of their own resources. Medical waste has always been difficult to dispose of, particularly in 3rd world countries. The P2 method can re-process this material into sanitized products. Billions of used syringes need to be disposed of each year safely; there is now a method to do this.

For more information check out these reports:
Mark's Technology News , CNET Military Tech