GOOD
NEWS
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21
17 January 2017
Making something out of nothing
ohan Pieterse is in his element. The new owner of Primwood Products says he loves to “be creative and make something out of nothing”. His firm, based in Mimosa Street, Hermanus Industrial Area, produces wood-replacement planks from recycled plastic and sawdust, from which Primwood manufactures durable outdoor furniture. The waste plastic used in the process is low-density polyethylene (LDPE), which is the thin plastic used to wrap food and other goods (‘cling wrap’). This plastic is reclaimed from municipal waste systems by a recycling company in Cape Town, which heats it together and, once it has cooled, flakes it. It is in this form that Primwood receives it, combines it with sawdust for strength and colour pellets, and extrudes and molds various-sized planks from it. Any off-cuts are returned to the recycling company and flaked again before being sent back to Primwood. “The planks we make are all totally recyclable, as well,” says Johan. “It’s an ever-revolving cycle, because there is an endless supply of this type of plastic. People just keep wrapping things!” The company produces a standard range of garden furniture (various designs of chairs and tables, picnic benches, pool loungers and dog kennels), jungle gyms for schools and municipalities, flower boxes and plant lattices, as well as municipal refuse bins and public benches, while it also manufactures made-toorder items. The products are available in brown, black, grey,
My Home By Sarah Taylor marble, blue and green, while red and yellow are popular for the jungle gyms. Standing perpetually exposed in the elements, the lifespan of these products is significant at a minimum of 40 years, especially when compared to the natural alternative, wood, which may have a lifespan of just three years under similar conditions. “The fact that our polywood products are so durable makes them quite easy to sell,” says Johan, who jokes that their durability might mean some people will bequeath their polywood patio set to their dearly beloved in their will. Apart from being extremely durable, the polywood items are considerably heavier than wood, which means that it is more difficult for thieves to walk off with polywood benches or tables, for example. This also means that they won’t get blown over in the wind. They are nonabsorbent, so work well in a wet environment and need no maintenance at all. Primwood, staffed by 20 people, supplies its recycled refuse bins to all the municipalities in the Western Cape and some in the Eastern Cape.
Johan Pieterse (third from right at the back) with factory manager Sieg Lötter (right) who has been with Primwood for 16 years, and their team.
Welcome Mavata working on Primwood’s garden furniture. Johan used to live in Johannesburg where he and his son own an engineering firm. He owned a car dealership in Hermanus before taking over Primwood Products in September last year. “Sitting at a desk half killed me,” he laughs. “At Primwood, I am being creative and making something out of nothing, out of waste.” Polywood products are becoming much more common globally, according to Johan. “A friend travelled to Disneyworld in the US recently and he took photos of benches there that were made from extruded plastic planks. “What we still have to get right in South Africa is recycling. While the Cape Town and Hermanus municipalities are very good in this regard, many other municipalities don’t even sort their waste, which is simply buried in landfill. LDPE, however, takes an extremely long time to break down
underground, with no UV to assist the process. So with polywood, at least some good is coming out of the recycling process.” Numerous online sources estimate that buried LDPE could take between 500 and 1 000 years to biodegrade. Primwood Products, which has been in existence since 2007, has a few agents in Somerset West and Cape Town, as well as a small showroom in Durbanville. “We are doing our bit to help save the environment for our children,” says Johan. And how wonderful that these same children might spend their youth playing on a jungle gym that was made by Primwood in a bid to protect the environment. 12 Mimosa Street, Hermanus 028 284 9000 www.primwood.co.za