ECOPEBBLE PAVERS: CIRCULARITY IN CONCRETE

Anston Architectural Products is well known in the landscape industry for the supply of beautiful, high quality concrete paving and landscape products. EcoPebble is Anston’s newest product offering – a concrete mix design that is considerate of the environment, containing a mix of locally sourced and recycled waste materials and promoting circularity in manufacturing.

The EcoPebble concrete mix is an upgraded version of Anston’s existing Pebble Range mix design, which features a subtle pebbled aggregate finish available in four colour options. The EcoPebble mixes retain the same stunning colours of their Pebble counterparts, looking virtually identical to the naked eye.

EcoPebble mixes contain a lower proportion of virgin raw materials such as washed sand and mineral stone aggregates, which are finite resources that are mined from quarries. A portion of the washed sand is replaced with manufactured quartz sand, which is a waste by-product of quarry processing. The use of this manufactured sand reduces the strain on sand quarries while providing a solution to reuse a waste product.

The stone aggregate in EcoPebble is partially replaced with Polyrok, a lightweight aggregate made from recycled soft plastic consumer waste, collected and converted into pelletised forms for use in concrete. The use of Polyrok achieves multiple benefits: the reduced consumption of natural stone, the diversion of hazardous soft plastics away from landfill, and the ability to recycle Polyrok for reuse at the end of the product’s lifespan. Every square metre of Anston EcoPebble paving effectively diverts 200 pieces of soft plastic waste away from landfill.

The production of cement is a big contributor to global greenhouse gas emissions. To address this concern, Anston has successfully reduced the cement content in its EcoPebble mixes by substituting part of it with slag – a waste by-product of iron production. Thanks to the inclusion of slag, every square metre of EcoPebble paving saves 3.15kg of CO2 in comparison to a mix design using 100 percent standard cement.

Anston EcoPebble products are designed for durability, lasting for several years or decades in the built environment. At the end of their long lifespan, EcoPebble concrete can be recycled for reuse as road base or crushed aggregate, ensuring they continue in a circular lifecycle instead of ending up as waste in landfill.

The additional environmental benefits of EcoPebble are included at no extra cost to customers. Furthermore, EcoPebble mixes achieve higher strength results for concrete MPa and breaking load, meaning customers can enjoy better product performance at the same price point. EcoPebble is also available across Anston’s entire suite of landscape products in all sizes.

To learn more about EcoPebble or Anston’s luxury concrete products, visit their website via the links below.