PLAEX Building Systems takes a wide range of difficult to recycle thermal plastic waste to create a unique composite material encompassing a special mix of agricultural, marine and municipal plastic waste and dry aggregates. This is turned into a durable, fully interlocking building system that can be used and reused in a wide range of low-rise construction applications.

“I come from the construction industry, and within this industry, there’s a massive amount of waste and a huge issue around skilled labour. As a Project Manager, it was next to impossible for me to find people to complete projects on time and the massive amount of waste really got to me. Around 30 to 40 per cent of our budget was going towards waste management, or fixing issues. I was seeing all of the issues there and thought ‘there has to be a better way to build’,” Dustin Bowers, CEO of PLAEX, said.

As it turns out, there is. 

Using a unique composite and processing method, PLAEX is turning garbage into a resource. This resource consists of block building systems that are low-waste, reusable and made of recycled waste materials.

If you built with building blocks as a child, you can build with PLAEX. “It’s completely modular and autonomous. A robot can put this together, or anybody…and that’s what we need, moving forward. We need to streamline and simplify things,” Bowers said.

PLAEX is working on keeping things simple by participating in Volta’s programming and resources. They’ve been a virtual Volta Cohort company since May 2021 after winning the Volta Cohort Pitch Competition.

After entering the Volta Cohort program, PLAEX took part in Volta LEAP – a program for early-stage tech startups that are looking to raise capital and become accelerator-ready.

This program has been instrumental to PLAEX’s continual growth and progression as a startup.

“The Volta LEAP program was probably one of the most formative and educational programs…it really helped us take that next step forward professionally from a back-end point of view,” Bowers said.

This Volta program is offered virtually as well, an offering that Bowers sees value in, being based in New Brunswick.

Bowers also sees value in having his team attend the virtual sessions that are offered through Volta.

“Each month, we get a list of classes that Volta is offering ‘all right, here’s a list. What does everybody want to do?’ So it’s been really good.

PLAEX is looking forward to their next steps and goals as a company and they are excited about their new extruder – the machine that they use to help convert the waste into bricks – which is larger in scale and will help them to produce their products quickly and more efficiently.

“I can produce ten times the amount of material that I was producing before per minute. So we should be able to produce a brick every minute or two. And if we can do that, then we’ve hit our scale production target. I’ve got a master domino work piece set up, so this first brick is that one that tips the first one over and it’s just going to go from there,” Bowers said enthusiastically.

To learn more about PLAEX Building Systems, visit their website at: plaex.ca.

Tags: construction applications, Entrepreneurship, innovation, plaex building systems, volta cohort

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