EcoPebble Concrete Pavers & Products
Made from a combination of locally sourced and recycled materials, EcoPebble promotes circularity and waste reduction while retaining all the benefits and appeal of luxury concrete.
"We use Anston paving for the fantastic range of colours and customization but we love their pavers because they are hand-made using locally sourced materials. These are pavers that encapsulate a sense of place."
Darin Bradbury, MINT Pool + Landscape Design
Concrete Designed For A Circular Economy
Anston EcoPebble was born out of the desire to create architectural concrete paving and landscape products with reduced environmental impacts, that would retain the existing strength characteristics, durability and visual appeal of Anston’s premium concrete finishes.
Using our existing range of Pebble colours as a starting point, we have incorporated innovative, recycled materials into the EcoPebble mix designs, which still achieve the required strength and breaking load requirements of our standard paving range.
The new EcoPebble colours remain a close match to their Pebble counterparts:
Supporting a Circular Economy
The concept of a circular economy influences the design, production, consumption and reuse of a product during its entire life cycle, eliminating waste and achieving circularity through processes like maintenance, reuse, refurbishment, remanufacture and recycling. This is in contrast to a linear life cycle, where a product is manufactured using finite resources, used or consumed, and then turned into waste.
Anston EcoPebble demonstrates circular thinking via its use of locally sourced raw materials, recycled waste products, and renewable resources. The product is designed for longevity and has a decades-long lifespan, thus reducing the energy expenditure required for replacement. At end-of-life, EcoPebble products can be crushed and recycled for reuse as road base, ensuring they don’t end up as waste in landfill.
Made with 100% Australian Materials
The origin of raw materials is a contributing factor to energy expenditure and GHG emissions due to the activities associated with transport. Locally sourced materials have a lower associated carbon footprint than materials that have been imported from overseas.
All raw materials that make up Anston EcoPebble are sourced from local companies in Victoria, Australia, minimising the greenhouse gas emissions associated with transport of materials to our manufacturing premises.
Reuse, Repurpose, Recycle
Anston EcoPebble contains recycled waste materials that are treated and repurposed for safe and functional use as a component of concrete. This gives the waste materials a second life, continuing their journey in the life cycle of a new product, instead of ending their lifespan in landfill.
Learn more about the ingredients that make up Anston EcoPebble
Recycled Soft Plastics
For every square metre of EcoPebble produced, an equivalent of 200 pieces of soft plastic waste are diverted away from landfill.
EcoPebble contains a lightweight aggregate material that replaces a portion of the natural stone aggregates in the mix, reducing consumption of finite mineral resources.
The lightweight aggregate is made of recycled plastic waste, which, if untreated, is a problematic material for the environment and ecosystem.
slag, replacing cement
Blast furnace slag is a hazardous waste by-product created in the process of iron and steel production. Left untreated in landfill, it causes pollution of the natural environment.
EcoPebble contains powderised ground slag, which is used as a supplementary cementitious material reducing the ratio of standard cement by 20%. This presents double benefits of lowered CO2 emissions (due to using less cement) and a solution to divert waste away from landfill.
manufactured sands
Sand is a necessary component of all concrete products, used as a binder holding the concrete together. However, it is a finite natural resource that can be depleted from over-consumption.
EcoPebble uses a 50-50 ratio of virgin washed sand and a coarser manufactured sand, which is a waste by-product of aggregate quarries. Using manufactured sands as a replacement for virgin sand allows for waste product to be repurposed, while also easing the pressure on sand quarries.
Reclaimed Rainwater
Anston has invested in the installation of large tanks to harvest rainwater that is captured onsite at our manufacturing premises.
The reclaimed rainwater is used whenever available, as an alternative to potable mains water. It is used to carry out production activities such as the batching of concrete mixes and the washing of machinery, workstations and equipment.
EcoPebble colours are available for all of the below products:
EcoPebble FAQs
Anston is pleased to offer all four EcoPebble colours at the same standard price as all other colours within our range.
Despite EcoPebble colours being more expensive to manufacture than our standard Pebble colours (due to the supplementary treatment and recycling process involved), we have decided to invest in the development of this range in order to provide our customers with a product that offers the same value whilst using less virgin materials.
EcoPebble is available across our entire product suite, and can be made in all standard paving, pool coping, cladding and large format sizes.
To view the sizing options available, visit the relevant product pages here: Paving / Pedestal Paving / Pool Coping / Furniture
Yes, EcoPebble colours are available as reinforced pedestal pavers, creating a robust combination of safety and sustainability in a locally crafted concrete product!
Like all our architectural concrete products, EcoPebble products are designed to provide excellent performance and durability, enduring in the built environment for several years or decades. Replacements of Anston paving or landscape features are more commonly done as a result of landscaping design changes , as opposed to product failure or degradation.
At end-of-life, EcoPebble concrete products can be recycled via quarries or recycling companies, where the concrete is crushed into small pieces. At this point, the lightweight plastic aggregate can be separated from the crushed concrete and reused once again.
Crushed EcoPebble concrete can find a second life as road base or aggregate material, encouraging a circular economy.
If you change your mind, decide to redesign your space and require disposal of EcoPebble products, do so in a responsible way by requesting your builder to separate recyclable building waste (including EcoPebble) from landfill waste and have it reprocessed by specialist building material recycling companies.
The old Pebble colours will be discontinued and superseded by the EcoPebble colours, which we believe to be almost identical.
For customers with existing Pebble orders, we'll continue to produce the colours in the Pebble mix designs as originally planned. Alternatively, we are also happy to substitute existing orders with the new EcoPebble colours instead, and will seek customer approval before we proceed with any changes.
Do you have a current Pebble order that will be affected by the EcoPebble upgrade? Contact us to discuss your colour preference.
The journey to produce our new EcoPebble colours was an arduous process involving plentiful mix design trials and product tests. It was imperative that the new raw materials used in the EcoPebble mixes would not result in any negative impacts to the end product's performance or aesthetic value.
Certain components of our EcoPebble mix designs are being used for our other three colour ranges: for example, all product ranges are made using reclaimed rainwater; the three other product ranges (Granite, Traditional and Ironstone) are made with slag replacing 12% cement; and the Ironstone colour range is made with a percentage of manufactured sand.
At this stage, we are not ready to incorporate Polyrok recycled plastic aggregates into our other colour ranges. However, the successful implementation of the EcoPebble range provides a great example that we can replicate as we continuously work on improving and refining our product range.
Watch this space!