Test results

Independent laboratories bent it, froze it, soaked it, baked it and dropped weights on it. This is what happened - explained so anyone can follow it.

When we say our recycled plastic lumber is strong and durable, you shouldn't have to take our word for it. So we didn't test it ourselves - we sent it to accredited independent laboratories in Hungary and Scotland and asked them to try their best to break it.

 Who did the testing

EMI Non-profit LLC (Budapest) - the body that issues Hungary's National Technical Assessments. WESSLING Hungary Kft - accredited environmental analytics lab. Széchenyi István University Packaging Laboratory (ISTA-certified). Every result below comes from their reports, not ours.
One more thing worth knowing: our material mix is the same consistent blend in every product we make, so these results apply across the whole range, from fence posts to benches to pallets.
View the real test result (Pdf) >

The lab measured bending strength at about 140 kg per square centimetre. A square centimetre is roughly the size of your little fingernail - and that tiny area can carry the weight of two adults before the material gives way.

Being honest: structural timber is stronger in bending (C24 softwood manages about 245 kg/cm²) and about 10 times stiffer. That's why we don't sell this for house frames or long unsupported beams. For fencing, benches, planters, decking with proper supports and playground structures, 140 kg/cm² is more than enough - and unlike timber, it never rots away to zero.

Source: EMI laboratory test reports. Values apply to the specific samples tested.

Testers dropped a 1 kg weight (about a bag of sugar) from 1 metre - waist height - onto the material. Result: zero damage. Then they chilled samples to -10°C, colder than most winter nights in the UK, and did it again. Still nothing.

The Charpy impact test tells the bigger story: breaking our material takes roughly 50 times more energy than breaking comparable softwood. Old timber goes brittle and splinters; our lumber bends before it breaks and never splinters at all. That matters a lot for playgrounds and park benches.

Left in water for 24 hours, the material absorbed just 0.08% of its own weight. For a 65 kg bench, that's about 50 grams of water - half a small glass. A softwood bench of the same size can soak up 30-80% of its weight: that's two to three buckets of water sitting inside the wood, which is exactly what causes rot, swelling and frost cracking.

Water absorbed in 24 hours, as % of material weight. Timber range: published industry data.

Samples sat under 1,000 hours of simulated intense sunlight - the lab's way of fast-forwarding through years of outdoor UV exposure. No visible change, no loss of strength. (One honest exception: our budget ECO+ variant doesn't include the UV stabiliser package, so we don't make this claim for it.)

Heat was tested two ways. At 70°C for an hour - hotter than any British summer day - the material grew by just 0.008%. Over a 10-metre fence run, that's less than 1 millimetre of movement: thinner than a pencil line. And after 50 straight days baked at 80°C, the bending strength was unchanged.

WESSLING's chemists tested for 14 heavy metals - arsenic, cadmium, lead, mercury, chromium, nickel and more. Every single one came back below the laboratory's detection limit. They also looked for phthalates, the plasticisers sometimes found in PVC: none found.

Compare that with pressure-treated timber, which relies on copper-based preservative chemicals that gradually leach into the soil around it. Our lumber needs no chemical treatment at any point in its life.

WHAT WE'RE STILL TESTING

We're straightforward about gaps too. EN 71 children's-product safety testing is being commissioned now, slip-resistance pendulum testing is scheduled, and our carbon figures are awaiting third-party verification through a formal EPD. We'll publish each result here as it lands - pass or fail.

Want the raw reports?

Every figure on this page comes from an accredited third-party laboratory report. For the full documentation pack - EMI mechanical tests, WESSLING analytics, the Széchenyi István University pallet study - use the buttons below or email