Since the mid 18th century, steel reinforcement in concrete – or rebar – has been used to improve the strength of concrete. Today, steelmaking is one of the world’s leading industrial sources of greenhouse gases, with around 1.6 billion tons of steel produced worldwide per year.

Around the world, Local, State and Federal governments are increasingly recognising the need for sustainable building practices. With this in mind, Queensland engineering firm Fibercon has developed Emesh in conjunction with James Cook University. Emesh uses recycled polypropylene plastic to reinforce concrete instead of the traditional steel, resulting in reduced CO2 emissions, water usage and fossil fuels.

Fibercon CEO Mark Combe established the company in 1996, with a goal of helping the construction industry simplify their processes, while saving time and money. In 2015 Fibercon’s development of a recycled macro-plastic fibre reinforcing made entirely from industrial plastic wastes was recognised with a prestigious Shell and Australian Department of Industry, Innovation & Science Innovation Challenge Award. Mark was also awarded the Top 50 Most Innovative Engineers in 2017.

“Plastic fibres in concrete have been around for twenty years – what is new about our product is that it is 100% recycled. The intention is to do something to give back, to close the cycle of useless waste,” explained Combe.

Since its first use in 2017, the technology incorporated into Fibercon’s Emesh product has been used by councils predominantly in footpaths, but also has applications from pavement concrete to channel drains, embankment erosion control, precast sewer and stormwater pits.

Each year Australians produce an average 107kg of plastic waste per person, according to a 2016 report prepared for the Department of Environment & Energy. On top of this, Australia uses around 25 million m3 of concrete per year, with around 5% of this concrete used in footpaths and light pavements. 

“If we replaced all the steel mesh in these pavements with Emesh, we would reduce our CO2 by 125,000 tons annually, and re-use 5,000 tons of waste plastic”, said Combe. “It’s an exciting goal for us.”
 
By using the recycled plastic technology Fibercon has also seen a reduction to date of 1,000 tons of CO2, 200 tons of fossil fuels reduction, and a 18,000 m3 of water reduction. Combe is direct: “According to the United States Environmental Protection Agency calculations, the reductions we have achieved in CO2 emissions, are the equivalent of taking 214 passenger cars off the road for 1 year,” he says.

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