The labour-intensive, costly and time-consuming activity of installing traditional herring-bone drainage soakaways for septic tanks and sewage treatment plants could now be a thing of the past.
Ezy-Drain, which has just been launched in the UK by Klargester, is a new type of pipe system that is lightweight, easy to use, high-performance and environmentally friendly.
The system was developed in the USA more than 20 years ago and, since then, more than 200,000 have been successfully installed across North America*.
Ezy-Drain comprises of sections of perforated plastic pipe, which are surrounded by a synthetic aggregate wrapped in polyethylene netting. Each three-metre section of pipe is joined together quite simply by the use of click-fit connectors, protected by a preformed collar.
The result is an extremely lightweight system that can be quickly installed by a single person up to four times faster than any time-honoured, gravel-based solution without the need for aggregate or specialist skills. The only manual labour involved is the backfilling of the trenches prior to operation.
The synthetic aggregate is manufactured from recycled expanded polystyrene, engineered to deliver for optimum performance while consistently retaining its form.
'There are so many advantages to using this tried-and-tested system over traditional gravel-filled soakaways that it's quite hard to know where to start,' says Kevin Roe, UK Sales Manager for Klargester.
'The storage and flow characteristics of the synthetic aggregate mean it's more effective at treating effluent and there's less chance of it getting clogged up.
'The cost of installation is also vastly reduced thanks not only to the speed of installation, but also because of the need for only one operative and minimal plant. There's no waiting around on site for a delivery of materials, and there's no issue with access for delivery lorries.
'What's more, in terms of environmental impact, the use of recycled waste materials makes Ezy-Drain a very sustainable solution.'
