Rod Fox-Managing Director, Revaluetech Ltd. U.K.

  • Rod has more than 40 years’ experience in development and project management within the plastics recycling sector. With his mechanical engineering knowledge and experience, he led the development in 1983 of the first process to reycle polypropylene film and fibres to make plant pots, which gained ISO accreditation. From 1982-1985 he developed the first ever process to recycle PET bottles. In the 1990’s his expertise helped develop a process to make first composite rail sleepers in the USA. He started research in 2007 with the aim to develop a process able to use mixed plastic packaging waste to manufacture structurally engineered products. Typically these are used for coastal and inland flood protection in place of tropical hardwood, as composite rail sleepers and utility poles for the power/telecoms sectors, in place of creosote treated softwood and concrete for kerbing and noise barriers, offering cost savings and exceptional whole life performance In 2014 he was appointed by RSSB and BSI to represent the U.K. on the CEN European and ISO global working groups to develop standards for polymer composite sleepers for the rail industry. During the past 18 months Revaluetech Re-Formative technology has won a variety of industrial and civil engineering awards.

    Title: “Plastic waste – a valuable resource to be nurtured”

    Synopsis: Revaluetech Re-Formative engineering process and formulations knowledge enables a wide range of structurally engineered polymer composite products to be manufactured, using recovered mixed plastic packaging waste. In place of tropical hardwood they are being used to increase resilience from catastrophic weather events affecting the U.K. coastline and inland flooding. Already being used in construction of groynes, sea walls, jetties, floating marinas, reinforcement, where required, in the form of chopped strand glass fibre is incorporated to increase strength. Whilst supplies are already available the technology to recover GF from composite waste and end of service life composite products has been developed and offers the means to utilise plastic waste rather than remain a problem to society. Its use in these structurally engineered products is desirable and forms an important facet of our ongoing development. Given longer, maintenance free service life these polymer composite products offer exceptional whole life performance. Significantly the products are price competitive with the traditional products they replace. It places Revaluetech Re-Formative engineering technology at the forefront ready to open up large-scale end uses in the U.K., and macro-scale export markets globally, thereby helping to meet DEFRA plastic recycling targets and for the technology to be licensed internationally.

 

Leave a Reply

 

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.