Fibertex South Africa, manufacturers and suppliers of a wide range of geosynthetic products, will be participating at the Institute of Waste Management’s (IWM) Wastecon 2016 conference to be held at Emperor’s Palace, Johannesburg, between 17 and 21 October.

“On display this year will be the company’s extensive range of geosynthetic construction materials used in the waste management sector, with a particular focus on the construction of waste landfill facilities and other applications associated with waste management,” says Darryn Meisel, national sales manager, Fibertex South Africa. “Products include woven and non woven geotextiles, geogrids, subsoil drainage pipe and fittings, geocells and various composite drainage systems, as well as gabions and mattresses. Fibertex will also showcase a wide range of erosion control systems, geomembranes and geosynthetic clay liners (GCLs).

Fibertex South Africa - part of a global organisation, with its head office in Denmark - has made a substantial investment in the latest technology to increase production capacity of its geotextile, industrial and automotive non-wovens product range.

The company’s manufacturing plant in Hammarsdale, KwaZulu-Natal, which is now the largest nonwoven geotextiles manufacturing facility in Africa, has recently been awarded the coveted CE marking – a mandatory certification for products sold within the European Economic Area (EEA). This certification endorses Fibertex South Africa’s compliance with other quality assurance standards, including ISO 9001: 2008 accreditation and a range of industry specific quality requirements.

What’s also notable, is that the Hammarsdale facility is the largest plant in South Africa that manufactures geotextiles from Virgin Polypropylene (PP). These needle punched materials, with a strong elastic bonding between the fibres, are used in building and construction works for separation, filtration, drainage, protection, stabilisation and reinforcement, as well as in the automotive, furniture and filtration markets.

Virgin PP has specific application in areas where the textile may be in contact with alkaline conditions, for example in slimes dams and waste sites. These PP geotextiles have advantages in installations where the cost of failure may be extreme, both in financial and environmental terms, as they have a high level of chemical stability under a wide range of environmental conditions.

In addition, given that these products are produced out of virgin material, there is full traceability on the raw materials over their entire “lifespan”, eliminating unknown factors such as age and potential contaminants, thereby ensuring that the materials are absolutely consistent in terms of performance in these critical applications.

Concern for the environment is critical at Fibertex and no chemical binders are used in the product or production process. In addition to the wide range of products made from virgin PP, Fibertex also has a range of products based on recycled Polyester (RPET). No waste is produced within the plant which has to be discarded. Similarly, all products produced are 100% recyclable. Consequently, Fibertex nonwovens are not harmful to the environment.