Plastics have a number of properties which make a significant contribution to needs in building and construction.
The oldest plastic products, that were manufactured and used on a large scale in the building industry (such as pipes), were installed 60 years ago and are still functioning like it was their first day.
Plastics in the construction industry are thus highly resource efficient. However, environmental balance sheets not only consider economical use of resources, but also the cost of maintenance during the life of the applications. Since most plastics are either easy to maintain or require no maintenance at all, they achieve first-class marks in their life-cycle evaluation.
Plastics are lightweight and contribute to savings by reducing man-hours and the need for heavy equipment, they are easier to store, transport and handle.
Compared with alternative materials in the building industry, plastics usually do better in environmental assessments. In addition to saving resources, the low maintenance cost throughout their life cycle and good recyclability of many plastics used in construction have a positive influence on these assessments.
Overall, plastics applications and solutions are generally more economical to produce, even in custom-made form, than alternatives.