Company Announcement - Aruba Energy Efficient Walling Systems received a Silver Award in the category Mixed Materials for their Greenlite Insulated Concrete at the prestigious South African Plastics Recycling Organization’s Recycled Product of the Year Awards held recently at the Spier Wine Estate in Stellenbosch. The Aruba Eco Building System is an ICF (Insulated Concrete Form Construction) method that uses a recycled, expanded Polystyrene rEPS that is coated with a special cement mixture to produce a lightweight, strong and highly versatile product that is used in a variety of different building applications. This fast, cost-effective building system is ideally suited to meet construction needs on the African continent and has assisted in successfully diverting more than 950 tons of polystyrene from landfills during 2014 alone.

“We started using rEPS in our building projects about 18 months ago, after our tests showed that the recycled material outperformed the virgin material.  Not only was it readily available and vastly cheaper, but the structure and size ensured that our concrete mixture adhered better to the beads without compromising on any of the properties that makes polystyrene ideal for use in building and construction projects,” says Hilton Cowie of Aruba ICF. 

Post-consumer polystyrene is collected for Aruba from recyclers operating around Cape Town with the help of the Polystyrene Packaging Council. After being shred and pelletized, the polystyrene beads are coated with special additives which allow the beads to mix correctly with cement and water without separating.  The coated, treated beads are packaged in 250 litre bags to be used on site as the aggregate for light weight insulated concrete.  “We offer an environmentally safe, green building initiative that is rapidly increasing in popularity and acceptance by architects and building contractors alike. The rEPS modules comply with all statutory requirements and facilitate the use of unskilled labour,” Cowie says. Furthernore, Aruba’s product enjoys the approval of SABS as it contains no CFC's, HCFC's nor HCF's, will not decay and is vermin proof with very low water absorption properties. It is also flame retardant and has the advantage of excellent thermal insulation and acoustic properties.

Besides construction, other uses include flower pots, light fittings, outdoor furniture and pizza ovens.  The composite wall panel has a fire resistance of 140 minutes when tested in accordance with SANS 10177:2 (2005). Aruba ICF is currently busy with a large project in partnership with Motheo Construction at the Sandton Gautrain Station where Greenlite Concrete is being used to fill voids, to insulate and raise floor levels in all the new vendor shops at the station. Commenting on the award, PSPC Director Adri Spangenberg says the market for products made from recycled polystyrene continues to grow each year.  “It is exciting to see so many new and practical applications being developed in South Africa that allows us to divert material away from landfill and transform them into high value, high demand end markets.  We are overjoyed that a panel of independent judges were impressed with the Greenlite Insulated Concrete’s values on water vapour permeability, thermal conductivity, as well as the thermal resistance and thermal transmittance coefficients,” she says.

Concluded Cowie: “We are very thankful to the industry associations such as Polystyrene Packaging Council and SAPRO who have shown an unwavering belief in our products and helped us get consistent, reliable access to recycled materials for our projects in order to meet supply and deadlines. The faith and support that the plastics industry and related associations show in initiatives such as ours, helps to raise the profile of our product and bring it to the attention of a greater market”, Cowie says.