The new Walltopia macros and volumes adopt a well-established environmentally friendly production technology from other industries to improve sustainability within the climbing industry

Innovation has always been a driving force at Walltopia for the development of products. Our passion for science and technology, our devotion to hard work and responsibility have helped us grow to become the world leader in the climbing industry. This is also what keeps us up at night always asking ourselves “What can be improved, done in a different way? What can be optimized? What can we experiment with, alter or completely change?”. That leads to a lot of RnD experiments with materials, machinery and technology, some of which end up in the trash while others live on to become industry standards.

100% recyclable environmentally-friendly technology

The latter is the case with thermoplastic being used for the production of volumes and macros that Walltopia has implemented since last year. Stepping on his experience in the packaging industry, Ivaylo Penchev, Walltopia’s CEO and co-founder, suggested putting into action thermoplastic as a way to shift to a more sustainable product, making volumes entirely recyclable. “Walltopia Thermoplastic (TP) can be melted down and reshaped, its production doesn’t have toxic emissions making it both environmentally- and employee-friendly and, to top it off, the properties of the final product prove to be of a great quality.”, he says. The volumes and macros are extra durable and hard to break, offer outstanding grip and are super lightweight which makes them a setters’ favorite.

Volumes are a fast-moving commodity in the indoor climbing world, a consumable that sees a lot of use and has a shorter lifespan compared to other types of climbing gym equipment. Speaking about climbing walls, for instance, sustainability equals a sturdy, durable wall which can live a longer life without needing replacement. Holds and volumes, however, have a different story. A gym needs to update their holds and volumes inventory often in order to provide new shapes for creative route setting and keep the end customer engaged with a challenging and diverse climbing experience. This means the old volumes need to be broken down and recycled way sooner than any of the walls that they’re installed on. This gives the new technology of thermoplastic a big advantage being fully recyclable. Thermoplastic does not denature upon heat treatment which means its initial properties do not change during the production process. This allows thermoplastic volumes to be reused, reshaped or melted down and recycled into other products. In fact, the source material for the TP volumes currently in production is recycled plastic!