At least, that's if a hard-working team within UC's College of Engineering have their way.

The team has created a new building material comprised of used plastics such as supermarket bags, milk bottles and other food containers as well as the sawdust of radiata pine. And they're poised to take the product to market.

Sound like another outstanding Canterbury University innovation? Professor Shusheng Pang thinks so.

Living in chemical-free homes made from sawdust and recycled plastic is a giant step closer thanks to some clever research carried out by the University of Canterbury.

The research, led by UC's Professor Shusheng Pang, has been eight years in the making.

It has involved UC academics and students, as well as representatives from Scion (a Crown Research Institute), AgResearch (a specialist research organisation) and Mastaguard (a product supply company).

More than $1m worth of government funding has been pumped into their research project.

Right now, it's on the cusp of commercialisation, a process that turns research findings into a product that can be bought and sold nationally and overseas.

Professor Pang's team has come up with a way to combine radiata pine sawdust with the recycled plastics to make an innovative building product known as a wood plastic composite.

Their research could potentially substitute chemically-treated timber in some applications such as decking and bathroom panelling.

"We've spent years testing different product recipes to see how they'd stand up to immersion in water and prolonged exposure to natural weather conditions as sun, wind and frost. At last we've worked out the secret recipe. The results are very promising and gave us full confidence for building applications.

"We've also worked out the best way to mix and process the product. Now we want to bring our product to market so Kiwis can use alternative materials they use to build their homes.

"At the same time, we've discovered a practical use for the plastic clogging up our landfills. It's very much a win-win solution," says Professor Pang.