What do athletes and recycled-plastic have in common? When subject to wet or muddy conditions, a quick shower has them both looking good as new.

Launceston Church Grammar in Tasmania commissioned ARTAS architects to design a new fit out for the change rooms of the school’s sports complex. Having previously worked with Replas products, they felt recycled plastic would be perfect to incorporate into the design.

Faulkner Building, who won the contract for the construction work, did an amazing job of bringing the building plans to reality. The curved benches - made from 90 x 40 mm and 65 x 40 mm profile – flow with the shape of the rooms and are a real highlight of the construction. The black profiles contrast nicely with the walls, which also feature Replas 70 x 20 mm profiles as a base for coat hooks and smaller wall-mounted benches were custom made for the shower blocks.

Kensington Public School ordered benches for their outdoor play areas along with garden panels to replace the wall on their sand pit in late December 2011. Although it was cutting it fine, it was important to them that the goods would be delivered and installed before the school term commenced in 2012. The Replas Resource Centre worked overtime to make sure the order was quickly dispatched and installed in January, well before the children returned.

Annie Jones, School Principal, said, ‘The whole process has been smooth and everyone from Replas has been helpful. Excellent Customer Service’.

During 2008 a group of people including parents, councillors and council staff, skaters, bikers and scooters, joined together to work towards achieving an upgraded community skate park in Moama. In 2011 the park was officially re-opened complete with a sturdy recycled-plastic sign that was built to last. Recently four new Oval Benches designed by Replas were installed, providing weary skaters with a stylish place to take a break.

The Launceston Indoor Sports Arena is home to the Launceston Tennis Centre. Boasting a massive array of sporting entertainment, the arena also features a range of recycled-plastic products, from benches to bins all made from waste plastic which has been collected in Australia and saved from landfill.

The centre says if you’re into sport you should be in the Launceston Indoor Sports Arena, we say if you are into a healthier planet you should think Replas.

Centenary Park Golf Course in Frankston, Victoria, is one of the most popular public courses in Melbourne. Not only offering excellent public access, the golf course is also forging ahead in the use of recycled products. Replas benches, seats, ball washer stands, bins, signs and sand containers are just a few of the products dotted around the course, returning this valuable resource to the community that collected it.

Carrum Downs Secondary School is at the forefront of sustainability with their creative use of recycled furniture created from the plastic waste collected by their own community.

Teacher, Katie Johnson said students find the different environment allows them more freedom to be creative and, ‘they can be more focused on their learning,’ adding it also, ‘allows us to prompt conversations to do with sustainability’.

Principal Marie Walker says that it offers an opportunity for students to see the benefits of their own recycling efforts, ‘they see that it does have purpose, they see that their small effort has an excellent result in the cycle of recycling’.

It’s been said that colour is the bright side of childhood. So when South Taranaki District Council, in News Zealand, and its Hawera Community Board set out to install a new playground for the under 10’s at King Edward Park, they wanted a full palette - right down to the park seating. Our Wakefield benches turned a bright idea into reality. For their Wakefield seats, STDC chose blue slats on powder coated lemon yellow frames. ‘The seating is a great hit with the children’, says STDC Contracts Supervisor Nicola Bourke. ‘They are attracted to it as if it were an integral part of their play.’ The slats are made from recycled plastic - milk bottles turned into something the kids, and their caregivers, can use and enjoy. So there’s a sustainability lesson in there too. ‘We are very interested to see how the seats weather and stand up to treatment over time,’ says Nicola. With seating made from a combination of galvanized mild steel powder coated using the latest techniques, and colour-fast recycled-plastic slats that never need painting, the Hawera community can look forward to getting years of use out of their Wakefields, and lots of fun too.

The students at Bilpin Public School in NSW were less than happy with the timber benches in their weather shed. Fed up with splinters and nails the school knew there had to be a safer and more comfortable solution.

After discovering Replas recycled-plastic benches it didn’t take long before the whole school community was on board. Through parents’, staff and local support, funds were raised to fit out the whole area in benches that matched the blue theme of the school. During a working bee, parents easily installed the benches which were fitted with plaques recognising the community’s donations.

‘The new Replas seating is far better as it does not have nails or screws that work their way out and is more comfortable for the students to sit on all year round.’ Julie Currey, Principal, Bilpin Public School.

Attach a set of Replas recycled-plastic slats to a sturdy oval frame and you have a new shape in seating. The quirky Oval Bench is perfect for casual public seating and ideal where space is limited. Not only is it stylish and highly functional, but it is also environmentally friendly. Made from long-lasting recycled plastic this bench is available in a range of colours and will continue to look good for years to come.

Around suburban Wellington, in New Zealand, public seating at bus stops, outside schools and elsewhere has been transformed in recent months, with several installations of Metal Art’s Wakefield benches. By combining Replas’ recycled plastic slats with Metal Art’s robust metal framing, the Wakefield ticks all the boxes for practicality, value and sustainability.

The Wakefield will stay looking good for longer than timber benches and never needs a coat of paint. With recycled-plastic slats available in green, grey, brown and blue, steel parts powder coated to colour of choice, and available in a variety of lengths, the Wakefield bench is the ideal compact seating solution for busy pedestrian precincts.