Wavin Plastics, the UK’s leading provider of water management solutions, has welcomed Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s plans for building 100,000 new eco-homes.
In a bid to reduce carbon emissions and protect the nation’s Green Belt, Mr Brown has announced plans to redevelop many of the UK’s brownfield sites using natural, recycled or reclaimed materials.
Wavin Plastics has demonstrated its commitment to long term sustainability through a number of products, launched recently and designed specifically to meet the needs of people working in our ever changing environment. These include OSMA under-floor heating, Trigon – a barrier pipe system, SiTech – a low-noise push-fit soil system and a 6 Boss Manifold.
Denise O’Leary of Wavin Plastics, said: “Our commitment to producing solutions which tackle and satisfy the concerns we all have over the environment and sustainability remains as focused as ever. Energy efficient and environmentally friendly products are key to cutting back on carbon emissions, safeguarding the planet and the population.”
Wavin recently supplied its OSMA under-floor heating system to the Zero Carbon House Project in the Shetlands. The project aims to show how a holistic approach to renewable energy can eliminate household carbon emissions that would normally result from running a family home. OSMA UFH was chosen because it is simple to install, does not require specialist tools and keeps running and maintenance costs to a minimum.
Allowing water to be carried safely across formerly contaminated land, Wavin Plastics also created the Trigon barrier pipe system. It has been specifically designed for areas of contaminated land unsuited to conventional plastic pipe products. These are typically urban brownfield sites where there are known contaminants in the ground.
Denise comments: “A safe and dependable water distribution system to any development is essential and even more so when working on a historically contaminated site.”
OSMA SiTech meets the increasing demand for low-noise pipe installations which combat the issues surrounding internal drainage and more specifically, daily flushing in multi-storey apartment buildings, hospitals, court buildings and libraries. Understanding that unwanted noise can easily transmit to adjacent rooms, Wavin Plastics launched OSMA SiTech for a quieter life.
The new soil system is considered an innovation which makes fitting and installation easier and less time-consuming, while retaining the high quality and noise reduction required by the market.
One other innovation is the company’s 6 Boss Soil Manifold – a newly designed solution which avoids some of the old complexities of installing soil and waste connections in confined environments.
“Plumbers are increasingly working inside tighter spaces, so compact design is important,” continues Denise. “With the trend towards high density housing here to stay, the pressure to connect multiple waste runs to the soil stack will continue. The benefits of the Manifold are clear – it is easy to handle, simple to install, durable and cost-effective. There’s a reduced need for bends, and no upstanding bends or special boss adaptors are required.”
UK wide research conducted by Wavin Plastics has revealed that 75% of plumbers feel they have a critical role to play in educating customers and raising awareness of the issues associated with sustainable water management, and Wavin provides the product solutions for them to be able to do this.
Denise concludes: “It’s an evolutionary process. There’s no denying that the change in market demands is accelerating, especially from a drainage point of view. What we need to keep in mind is that managing water is a cycle made up of different stages starting with catching rainwater and ending with reusing it. It’s no use having some solutions that are sustainable and others that aren’t, because each stage of the cycle must work in such a way that the whole system is sustainable.”