Improved fuel efficiency, greater payload capacity and weight savings are just some of the advantages offered by an environmentally beneficial lightweight truck body panel launched at the Commercial Vehicle show recently. Bottled drinks and ready means could soon be delivered using trucks made from their recycled packaging, thanks to a 2-year project funded by WRAP that has now reached trial stage. The Panelplus project was set up to investigate the viability of using domestic and industrial plastic waste to form high-performance structural composite panels on a commercial scale. The resulting material has been shown to offer a host of cost, weight and environmental advantages to commercial vehicles. The body panel was developed by a consortium led by Euro-Projects Ltd and received backing under WRAP's R&D funding of £500,000.
