Benches

Kedel's recycled plastic benches are made to last 

Recycled Plastic Benches from Kedel are demolishing competition from the cheaper wooden benches traditionally found in parks, schools, and pub gardens, because they last at least 5 times longer than treated wood timber (see WRAP study)

In as little as one year wood benches will look jaded, while Kedel's recycled plastic benches will still look like new. There is no significant change in appearance even after many years of use and continual exposure to the elements.

You can expect a Recycled Plastic Bench to last a lifetime and maintain its appearance, without any maintenance other than cleaning.

We use 3 varieties of Recycled Plastic

Recycled mixed plastic - HDPE (High density polyethylene) and LDPE (Low density polyethylene), made from recycled plastic milk bottles and a variety of other waste plastic, Synthetic wood, made entirely from recycled polystyrene, and multicoloured Recycled Plastic Sheet (80% recycled HDPE).

Synthetic Wood or Plastic Wood (Styrene) Benches

Synthetic wood is made from recycled waste polystyrene. This is the same stuff used to package your meat or fish at the supermarket, and in take away packaging, coffee cups, and packaging of electrical goods.

We take this type of material, which has been melted down and made into pellets, we heat it and mix it with colour pigments, before extruding it through a metal die. The compression and melting gives us a product with the same density and weight as some South American hard woods.

Recycled Plastic Wood exhibits many of the same working properties as wood. It has the same look and feel of wood, and can be worked with normal woodworking tools - screwed, glued and sawn just like wood. Our designers were delighted with the authentic wood-like finish, which can easily be manufactured in any RAL colour.

The colour is added during manufacture, and is the same throughout the material, so it will never need paint. It doesn't flake or crack, is UV resistant, and keeps its colour even in direct sunshine. Wooden benches have taken quite a battering in our UK winters - they swell up in the wet, and shrink in the dry weather. Along with frost in winter, this causes warping, cracks, and flaking of paint and varnish.

But a Recycled plastic product won't absorb moisture. It's waterproof! No frost damage is possible. This is a genuine no maintenance, long lasting product. If it rains, just wipe it off and sit down immediately. There's no danger of getting a damp, cold backside.

Our customers say Kedel plastic wood looks even more wood-like after weathering, and their friends haven't a clue it isn't wood.

These are genuine, no maintenance, recycled waste plastic products.

Recycled Mixed Plastic Benches 

Our mixed plastic benches are made from a mixture of plastics including HDPE and LDPE. This makes them very robust and hard wearing. Maintenance will never be needed as they will never rot.

The recycled plastic lumber we use for these garden benches comes from old paint trays, plastic milk cartons, plastic buckets and most of the recycled plastic waste British families throw away daily. 

Bright colours are more difficult to achieve with this Mixed Plastic than is possible with Kedel's Plastic Wood.

This is because this plastic waste contains such a mixture of colours. Although better sorting would help, this is seldom considered cost effective in the UK, as it would have to be done by hand.

IS WOOD OVERRATED?

One of Kedel's customers complained that we had sent them wood instead of a recycled plastic. Recycled plastic lumber benches will soon become the norm, saving the worlds hard wood forests, and keeping plastic out of landfill.

About 30% of UK landfill is made up of plastic. We can reduce our carbon footprint significantly by using it instead to provide beautiful, useful, maintenance-free products, with all the advantages of plastic while keeping much of the aesthetics of wood.

SOURCING IS IMPORTANT TO US

Our mixed plastic benches are made from a mixture of plastics including HDPE and LDPE. This makes them very robust and hard wearing. Maintenance will never be needed as they will never rot. The recycled lumber we use for these garden benches comes from old paint trays, milk cartons, buckets and most of the recycled waste British families throw away daily.

Kedel recycled plastic materials are sourced in the UK wherever possible. We do not use foreign imported plastics from China and other parts of Asia for sound environmental reasons - i.e. they carry a significantly higher carbon footprint due to the burning of fossil fuels for additional transportation.

Meeting Government Carbon Targets 

When you buy Garden and Park Benches from Kedel, you are not only acquiring a convenient maintenance free product, but making a direct contribution to reducing the impact human beings have on global warming and climate change.

This eco-friendly, green sourcing of outdoor park and street furniture is a valuable incentive for customers when tendering for or buying for institutional or government projects. It is both ethically relevant and economically advantageous for all parties concerned, and enables governments to meet their recycling and carbon reduction targets.

Purchasing our recyclable furniture is actively helping us combat the scourge that is waste pollution. Our benches are made from household waste that would otherwise be destined for landfill or the ocean. Once in the landfill, plastic can take decades to biodegrade. Further, it endangers the animals that might mistake it for food. Read more about plastic pollution on our blog here.