Page 61 - Green Builder March-April 2021 Issue

Circular thinking. Fiberon’s closed-loop manufacturing process reuses almost all of
the water needed, and nearly any waste the method generateas. COURTESY OF FIBERON

Natural setting. management at The AZEK Company, contractor-based decking industrial wood scraps and recycled plastic from common items such
Alfresco living projects were bigger and more elaborate over the past year, with as shopping bags, newspaper sleeves and shrink wrap. The company
spaces allow multiple levels, covered spaces, cabanas and flex spaces. Meanwhile, reclaims and repurposes more than 800 million pounds of recycled
peaceful
outdoor do-it-yourself (DIY) projects have tended to be smaller but more plastic film and reclaimed wood fiber annually, and it is one of the
reprieves within personalized and unique. “DIYers are using more colors, patterns and largest recyclers of discarded plastic shopping bags and polyethylene
an urban widths than ever before to visually divide deck spaces,” he observes. film wrap in North America.
lifestyle, as well Barnds says AZEK is seeing unprecedented demand for its Trex claims that it keeps more than 400 million pounds of plastic
as a safer way composite decking products, as homeowners seek a combination of and wood scrap out of landfills each year and that it has never felled
to gather with a design, durability and sustainability. a tree in the making of its products.
few loved ones “Many homeowners who are building new decks lean towards AZEK notes that it diverts roughly 400 million pounds of waste and
during the composite options because they are low maintenance and impervious scrap materials from landfills annually. At the company’s recycling
pandemic. to moisture, pests and [ultraviolet] damage,” Barnds asserts. “We’re plants in Wilmington, Ohio, and Scranton, Pennsylvania, TimberTech—
COURTESY OF FIBERON
also seeing an acceleration of wood conversion—homeowners AZEK’s decking division—converts hard-to-recycle materials that
replacing older wood decks with composites—not just because of would traditionally end up in landfills into composite decking products.
performance and sustainability aspects, but also because they have TimberTech also reuses up to 99 percent of internal scrap.
more design options with composites.” Not to be outdone, decking manufacturer Fiberon each year
can tout that it protects more than 1 million trees from being cut
SECOND LIFE down, recycles 100 million pounds of plastic into composite decking
Composite decking companies have established robust science-based materials, and maintains closed-loop processes by reusing almost all
recycling programs, through which they turn a wide spectrum of of the water and waste used in its manufacturing process.
PVC products—such as siding, flooring, window components and
piping—into composite decking and outdoor furniture. PERSONAL OASIS
The entire Trex decking portfolio, for example, is manufactured New decks are not the only way people are upgrading their backyard
using more than 95 percent recycled content, including reclaimed environments. A number of preferred changes follow an alfresco

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