Thinking of putting in a deck, patio or fencing in or around your humble estate? Consider using Trex composite deck material instead of toxic, treated lumber. Trex is a composite alternative wood material created from a combination of recycled wood and plastic. The plastic prevents moisture, rot and insect damage and spintering while the wood prevents UV damage to the plastic and gives the material a more ‘natural’ look.
The company keeps roughly 300,000 tons of plastic and wood scrap out of landfills every year and no trees are cut down for the purpose of making Trex. Their wood comes from reclaimed wood from woodworking operations, used pallets and sawdust (300 million pounds a year).
Trex recycles all forms of polyethylene and is one of the largest plastic bag recyclers in the United States with the company estimating that 7 out of every 10 recycled grocery bags in the U.S. end up at Trex (about 1.5 billion per year)
Company manufacturing processes are also pretty green. Trex’s trailers are hydraulically powered with vegetable-based oil, a proprietary processing method eliminates smokestacks and factory run-off and refuse are recycled back into manufacturing.
(The major downside to wood/plastic composites appears to be at the end of their life cycle when the plastic component cannot be separated and recycled again.)
find a Trex contractor in your area or a locate a retailer
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Trex is a terrible choice for anyone who wants to use an alternative to treated lumber. As an additional note treated lumber is rarely used for the actual decking, the structure yes (and will still be used for the structure of any composite decking material like Trex)
Yes it is good that Trex is “recycling” wood and plastic to make their decking, but here’s the problem, when you combine a natural product (wood) with a man-made product(plastic) you get a product that, at our current technological level, becomes permanent waste. the plastic keeps the wood from naturally breaking down and composting, the wood keeps the plastic from being able to be recycled.
If you are looking for sustainable materials for decking look for either 100% plastic decking (using 1 kind of plastic only, HDPE is a good choice) or a wood that is highly rot resistant, great at weathering and will hold up (Ipe, Teak, Mahogany, Redwood, etc)
Hey thanks for the great blog, I love this stuff. I know Earth Day has already passed us by, but with everyone going green these days, I thought I’d try to do my part.
I am trying to find easy, simple things I can do to help stop global warming (I don’t plan on buying a hybrid). Has anyone seen that EarthLab.com is promoting their Earth Day (month) challenge, with the goal to get 1 million people to take their carbon footprint test in April?… I took the test, it was easy and only took me about 2 minutes and I am planning on lowering my score with some of their tips.
I am looking for more easy fun stuff to do. If you know of any other sites worth my time let me know.
Save the world – recycle !!
I think that looks great and it is good for the earth seems like a win win.