US Startup Arqlite SPC Collaborates with Cemex Ventures to Recycle Plastic for Concrete and Aggregates Production

While going through this article, you will get to know several useful approaches regarding how construction engineering in the US joins the global strategy as of sustainability. You will witness that in the example of a partnership between two manufacturers whose target is to produce building materials of recycled plastic. Readers will discover the following:

· Reasons why the manufacturers decided that the solution is a must to get implemented for modern construction practices;

· Benefits the collaboration will bring to construction engineering.

So, to get acquainted with the info here is a good idea if your career is somehow connected with the construction industry (and you want to be in the loop) or you just love getting to know truly great solutions with a hint of sustainability. In case this article inspires you to develop an eco-project like that, it is a must-to-do step to check engineering services at Engre . This B2B marketplace helps to implement any idea using the “from sketches to ready product” approach.

Let’s start with the topic now.

Recently, Arqlite SPC , a startup company located in California has announced about their investment-based partnership with Cemex Ventures (where the last is the investor). The subject of the agreement is the procedure of making lightweight artificial aggregate and light concrete with a low CO2 footprint of recyclable as well as unrecyclable plastic waste. For more details, go on reading.

Why the Industry Badly Needs the Collaboration

Before considering the solution itself, let’s take a glimpse at the reasons the manufacturers came to such an idea.

If they look at the “plastic” market globally, around one million (!) plastic bottles are bought every minute. People use about five hundred billion plastic bags annually. Approximately eight million tons of plastic goes to oceans yearly that damages marine wellbeing. Horrible data, right?

The above-mentioned mostly happens as a result of the lack of environmental awareness as well as tech limits. This causes the case when only eight percent of three hundred million tons of plastic waste (formed every year) is recycled.

Just for the reason as of somehow to optimize the situation and support the global sustainability policy, Arqlite SPC with the support of Cemex Ventures suggests the low-cost tech project which processes a wide range of plastic waste as input materials. To bring to life an eco-solution in the civil industry (in other industries as well), companies and startups usually find civil design services as a major support to create projects. So, if you are looking for the engineering team right now, go the same way.

The Specifics and Advantages of the Solution

The most wonderful fact is that Arqlite SPC started the research process about making things eco in the construction industry in 2016. A few years later, they have successfully designed and introduced a truly innovative approach in the production of building materials. The solution allows getting most of the plastic waste recycled but not just throwing that away at a landfill and polluting the environment. Here, we talk about sustainable concrete and aggregate which are widely used while constructing edifices, bridges, etc.

The aggregate by Arqlite SPC is three times lighter than traditional stone material. Due to that feature, it is an ideal ingredient to produce concrete with low CO2. The last is used to minimize demanded structural supports and to make transportation expenses substantially lower.

As far as plastic possesses the low thermal conductivity, this allows reducing its response to super high-temperature options and, as a result, the likelihood of fracturing or the concrete mix movements.

The aggregates produced of plastic waste multiply acoustic as well as thermal insulation by ten (!) times on the contrary to mineral aggregates. Additionally, they guarantee higher construction quality and better energy preservation. That is why light aggregates designed by Arqlite SPC deliver a great advance in eco-construction procedures.

Thanks to the financial support of Cemex Ventures , Arqlite SPC has managed to design an innovative (and already patented) approach that fundamentally differs from usual recycling procedures. Why is it so distinctive? While implementing the approach by Arqlite SPC, specialists in the construction industry may recycle all types of plastic!

Moreover, the solution successfully copes with plastics that are considered as non-recyclable nowadays. The last constitutes approximately seventy percent of the waste (degraded by UV, laminated, aluminized, and so on).

Who requires the solution? The target customers for the technology are considered construction as well as pre-cast concrete enterprises. They use the light aggregate as a substitution for expanded shale and gravel. It is done to create a light concrete mix. This approach will come in handy for landscapers that develop drainage layers for gardens, parks, and fields.

According to Cristina Aparicio, head of Cemex Ventures (investment branch), the financial support given by the company is the ambition to supply concrete with zero CO2 to all of its clients around the world by 2050. She also commented that this investment possesses a double mission: to assist in softening the issue as of plastic waste and to design construction materials with a low CO2 footprint.

Currently, Arqlite SPC starts up its technology (the second version) in its plant located in Santa Ana (California). This new factory possesses powerful machinery from several European countries. Due to that, the startup will be able to reach a capacity of around eighteen thousand tons per year!

For Cemex Ventures, the location is strategic because it is in close distance to its aggregate and concrete operations in California.

Arqlite has already signed up several contracts to recycle plastics from manufacturers in the Los Angeles area. The startup also cooperates with the University of California to go on bringing innovations in civil engineering.