Schaafsma and Alldrain are pioneering temporary drainage: "If plastic drainage pipes are banned, we have an alternative"
Under the brand name Verdiflex, Schaafsma drainage and Alldrain offer temporary drainage with 100% biodegradable drainage pipes. With Willem Noordhoek – who besides Schaafsma is also co-founder of Combi Drain – Alldrain has a long history. This provides the confidence in innovation needed for the transition from PVC drainage pipes to biodegradable drainage pipes.
Willem Noordhoek’s relationship with Alldrain at Combi Drain dates back to the previous century when founder Henk van Deurzen was still at the helm of Alldrain.
Willem: “I met Henk in 1999 when we started Combi Drain. Four of us took over the company from the contractor and drainage specialist where I was working at the time.
Through various connections, we ended up with him. I still remember walking through a shed together and there was an immediate connection between us in that one-on-one contact.
We bought a chain trencher and a trenchless drainage machine from him, and Alldrain became our drainage pipe supplier. In the years that followed, until his passing, a strong friendship developed between us.
When Patricia continued Alldrain before her father’s death, they came to me first. When Patricia laughs, she’s just like her father, and like him, she’s innovative and progressive. That’s why we’re now working together on the transition from PVC drainage pipes to biodegradable pipes.”
At the forefront
Willem: “We’re in a world of PVC and PE drainage pipes with polypropylene and have many customers in arable farming and dairy farming.
Everything was going along fine until the European Natura 2000 legislation brought a turning point. Then came the nitrogen problem on top of that. Many dairy farms in the Netherlands are now completely locked down as a result.
Do you wait until PVC drainage pipes are banned? No, we chose to be at the forefront. It’s pioneering work. That’s where Patricia and I found each other. In collaboration with Alldrain, the Verdiflex brand with 100% biodegradable pipes was launched, specifically focused on temporary drainage.
You need to have trust in each other, otherwise it won’t work. Of course, there’s a whole history behind that. It’s about much more than just a pipe. It starts somewhere. Henk and I were comrades, we trusted each other blindly.
Through our collaboration, our networks are now coming together, and with them, a lot of knowledge and data. I think it’s unique when you bring so many people together and share knowledge with each other. That’s our strength.”
Pilots
Willem: “There are biodegradable drainage pipes in the ground at several locations and more pilots are coming. We’re investigating with cameras how the biodegradable pipes are holding up. There are pipes at four meters depth and they’re holding up very well. But when does that decomposition and biodegradability actually kick in?
We have the lab tests, but not yet the results from the ground. What we know now is that the biodegradable pipes are just as good as traditional PVC drainage pipes. That they don’t release harmful substances and leave no contamination in the soil.
But the time is still short. The biodegradable pipes have only been underground for about three years now. The skeptics wonder if the pipe is really biodegradable and nothing of the pipe remains. They ask: ‘Have you had it in for five years yet?’
So there’s still some awareness needed, but in a few years we’ll have a track record. That takes some time, but it can happen quickly. Meanwhile, plastic french fry containers and plastic coffee cups are no longer allowed.
That really happened from one moment to the next, and it could just as easily be that plastic drainage pipes are banned overnight. And then we have an alternative.”