The solution
Matta Products makes safety matting for industrial sites and playgrounds. Nearly all of it is made from recycled materials. Matta Products, which is based in Otaki on the Kapiti Coast, ran a trial to see if road cones, which are made from polyvinyl chloride (PVC), could be used in the mix.
It quickly proved a success. Fulton Hogan now collects old road cones from its construction sites around the country and sends them in regular shipments to Matta Products to be recycled. That’s added up to more than 15,000 road cones.
The cones are chipped into small pieces and added to other recycled materials. The blended mix then goes into an injection moulder to make safety matting.
The benefits
“The cones start out as a safety product on the roads and we're turning them into a safety product for children on playgrounds,” says Matta Products Director Dylan Matthews.
Based on conservative estimates, safety matting has a life of about 10 years and can be recycled up to five times.
"That means the material from a road cone could be still protecting people from harm 50 years after it comes off traffic duty."
To date, road cones from Fulton Hogan have been turned into more than 8,000 square metres of safety matting
“The priority was to prevent our road cones going into the landfill," says Beaudene Pumipi from Fulton Hogan.
"By recycling them we're also helping to provide a raw PVC material locally. That means it doesn't have to be created overseas and imported to Aotearoa New Zealand."