Nova Scotia Company Builds Homes with Repurposed Plastic
News release
JD Composites Inc. builds new concept home made from recycled plastic bottles
November 16, 2018 – Meteghan River, NS – Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency
Adopting clean technology innovations helps companies better control costs, improve global competitiveness and reduce negative effects on the environment. With support from the Government of Canada, JD Composites is developing an innovative solution that will help control the overflow of landfills, reduce further environmental damage associated with the production of plastics and create jobs for Atlantic Canadians.
The company is building a concept home using recycled polyethylene terephthalate (PET) foam. The home will be constructed using 100 per cent post-consumer PET foam from more than 500,000 recycled plastic bottles and finished with traditional products such as drywall. The building will act as a model to test thermal sustainability and resistance to moisture absorption, fatigue, corrosion and rot.
Colin Fraser, Member of Parliament for West Nova, on behalf of the Honourable Navdeep Bains, Minister of Innovation, Science and Economic Development and Minister responsible for the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency (ACOA), toured the concept home under construction on Friday.
The Government of Canada provided a repayable contribution of $109,690 to demonstrate and test the home through ACOA's Business Development Program, which supports small and medium-sized companies to become more competitive and develop new export markets.
The successful completion and testing of this home will position JD Composites as a leader in eco-friendly composite housing solutions with a primary focus on disaster relief homes in areas prone to flooding, extreme weather and natural disasters. This project will enable JD Composites to build homes and export sustainable housing materials internationally to areas such as Guyana and Saint Lucia in the Caribbean and to the United States.
This project builds on commitments made by the Government of Canada and the four Atlantic Provinces to drive economic growth in the region through the Atlantic Growth Strategy, which supports strategic investments to help the region compete in a low-carbon, low-pollution and resource-efficient economy.
"The export potential for start-up companies carving their place in the economy by using clean technologies to create innovative solutions is enormous. Our government recognizes the opportunities that clean technologies bring to regional economic growth and the importance of capturing a share of this global market, which is why we are investing in this project with JD Composites."
- The Honourable Navdeep Bains, Minister of Innovation, Science and Economic Development, and Minister responsible for ACOA
"Nova Scotia is actively increasing its profile as a leader in cutting-edge, clean solutions. This project with JD Composites will create jobs in a rural Nova Scotia community, while reducing the global impact on the environment by creating clean, sustainable housing solutions using repurposed recycled materials."
- Colin Fraser, Member of Parliament for West Nova
"With backgrounds in the seafood and boat building sectors, we've seen our ocean and beaches heavily polluted. Now, with this new process for building homes, we're not only offering an affordable and sustainable solution to green homes, we feel as though we're finally doing our small part to help clean up some of the mess."
- Joel German, Vice President, JD Composites Inc.
Quick facts
JD Composites was registered as a limited company on March 6, 2018 and is a member of the Canadian Council for Aboriginal Business.
JD Composites Inc. is the only company in Canada attempting to use PET foam for the construction of homes, which will reduce maintenance required on these buildings for 40 to 50 years.
International relief homes will take less than a week to build with a team of 10 workers.
This project will create five to ten full time positions with the potential for an additional 20-25 full time positions created by 2020.
Clean technology, which is any process, product or service that reduces impacts on land, air or water, accounts for 178,000 jobs in Canada, excluding clean electricity and waste management.
