EnvironCrete team Benjamin Gardiner, left, Samuel Lunny, Rhyva van Onselen, Kitt McEvoy, Jamie Nichols, Brad Selwood, seated. Not pictured Alex Finlayson and Caden Mouat-Harvey. Photo / Supplied
EnvironCrete team Benjamin Gardiner, left, Samuel Lunny, Rhyva van Onselen, Kitt McEvoy, Jamie Nichols, Brad Selwood, seated. Not pictured Alex Finlayson and Caden Mouat-Harvey. Photo / Supplied
A group of Hawke's Bay students are looking to make an impact on the environment with the development of their new outdoor chair.
Eight St John's College Hastings students have spent most of year developing a new environmentally friendly material made out of concrete and plastic under their company nameEnvionCrete.
The students developed the product as part of the Young Enterprise Scheme.
Joint CEO of EnvironCrete and year 13 student Brad Selwood said the group wanted to tackle the issue of landfills and the increasing amounts of plastic ending up in them.
"Personally I was very excited and happy when the seat was put in place, it really ticked off the year," he said.
"The team were wrapped with their seat getting put in place at school and all the hard work finally paid off and they could actually physically see the journey of EnvironCrete finish well."
He said that through a number of team meetings they discussed combining their school social principles with a product that goes in line with the current environmental issue that society is facing.
"We found out about the harsh statistics of the effects that Co2 has on our environment and wanted to do something about it," Selwood said.
"We found that concrete mixture (cement) emits harmful Co2 emissions, so we wanted to reduce this and use plastic that would have been thrown in the landfill, to solve two problems at once.
The mixture is 20 per cent plastic and the rest cement with around the equivalent of 4000 plastic bottles used in their seat. Photo / Supplied
They found that the best mixture was 20 per cent plastic and the rest cement which helped make the material more durable and stronger, with around the equivalent of 4000 plastic bottles used in their seat.
"In terms of the seat, we wanted to make a statement and a physical object out of our message and idea and through many designs we came up with the curvy wavy design for aesthetics and for functionality."
He said that over the year they have been working on this project they found that not all things seemed to work.
"We were also trying to encompass Hawke's Bay apples in our concrete mixture/seats however through extensive strength testing we found it to be too brittle and too weak," Selwood said.
"But we have currently made a coconut husk mixture that we found to be strong enough, that will be for our Pacific model for our brothers in the South Pacific."
EnvionCrete group's mentor and owner of Worley Engineering Michael Finlayson worked with them to help formulate their ideas into something practical, able to be made and marketed and helped them connect with other businesses.
He is amazed by the work these teenagers have done.
"I wish I had done something like this at high school.
"To get some insight into the business world, who does what, how they operate is really valuable insight that few teenagers get to have."
The design is set to make it look like rolling waves with its flowing design. Photo / Supplied
"It is especially important as many are struggling to decide what they might do with their careers," he said.
"Getting exposure like this to help make a decision one way or another is invaluable."
The students said they could not do it without the help of the local business support in particular Finlayson who had always pushed and guided the team.
As well as Lattey Concrete, Bridgeman Concrete and Alto plastics who helped them with materials and development of the seat and product.
But in terms of the new material they have big plans ahead.
"Currently we are looking for buyers from Regional or City councils for our EnvironCrete seat, to put our seat in Hawke's Bay somewhere," Selwood said.
"Our plans for the future of EnvironCrete is to use our cement mixture in other outcomes such as pavers, with us always looking to find new materials to adapt it to bigger elements such as roading."
