A rare bogland habitat in Scotland will be protected thanks to the installation of a new boardwalk consisting of planks and posts made almost entirely from recycled plastic bags and bottles.

The Duraplas products, supplied by Centriforce, were used to create a 374 metre long, 1.3 metre wide, raised boardwalk at Langlands Moss nature reserve, near East Kilbride in South Lanarkshire. The boardwalk will allow access for leisure while conserving the rare ecosystem of mosses, lichens, reptiles, invertebrates and birds.

The Moss is a designated nature reserve, attracting 12,000 visitors every year interested in its rare flora and fauna.

The Friends of Langlands Moss (FLM), who have maintained The Moss since 2006, raised £100,000 in grants from the Heritage Lottery Fund and local community funds to enable the boardwalk to be built and replace the existing wooden structure that was beginning to rot.

‘Easy to maintain and will last forever’

The environmental consultant and construction company, Environments for People (EfP), installed the boardwalk over a two and a half month period.

EfP’s Hugh Roberts said: “We specified the Centriforce Duraplas profiles as they offered a sustainable, durable and rot free solution that will be easy for the friends [FLM] to maintain and will last forever.”

He added: “Because of the sensitive nature of the moss, we could not take machinery onto the site. The terrain was also a big challenge. Duraplas profiles are an easy material to work with. It is durable and forgiving and we could construct much of the frame in the workshop before installing the posts on site and laying the plastic decking on top.”

Duraplas recycled plastic lumber is made from post-consumer HDPE plastic waste that would otherwise be exported or sent to landfill.

‘Visitors are amazed’

Maureen Potter, a local East Kilbride resident and founding member of FLM, said: “The old boardwalk was deteriorating and was getting slippery and on the verge of being unsafe.

“We soon realised that a recycled plastic boardwalk was the ideal option for the wet environment, as it will not rot. The boardwalk fits well with the landscape.

“Visitors are amazed when they find out it is made from recycled plastic and it is a real bonus that we can tell them it is made from plastic waste that would otherwise have gone to landfill.”