Kickstart: Bringing plastics, sustainability to the construction site

We've written a few stories about expansions at Trex Co. Inc., the composite decking maker that has seen sales soar as Americans invested in home improvements during the pandemic.

Trex happily points to its sustainability story, noting that its decking is made from recycled materials — polyethylene film and wood flour.

It turns out that even the expansion of its plants has a plastics sustainability angle. For the $200 million expansion in Winchester, Va., contractor Perry Engineering placed high density PE pads called FODS Trackout Control mats at the site entrance and exit.

"The mats effectively remove sediment from vehicle tires, keeping debris contained on the job site," officials for the Englewood, Colo.-based firm said in a blog on the company website. "Installed for use in both dry and wet conditions, [the mats'] pyramid-studded design ... release sediment trapped in tire treads."

The mats, made with recycled plastic content, are a replacement for single-use materials such as plywood or stone and can be reused at the next building site.

In-store film recycling is gaining attention from retailers and packaging companies wanting to improve their sustainability.

ProAmpac recently launched ProActive Recyclable R-2000F, a line of polyethylene flexible packaging that can stand up to the demands of foods from the freezer section but can still be recycled.

Over in the United Kingdom, retailer Sainsbury's has its own pilot program aimed at recycling film from frozen food packages. It is expanding its in-store film recycling program to include polypropylene film from freezer bags to existing programs for PE film.

"We hope that by trialing flexible film recycling points in our stores and accepting more of the packaging that our customers may be unable to recycle at home, we are helping our customers reduce plastic waste," Claire Hughes, director of product and innovation at Sainsbury's, said. "We'll listen to feedback from our colleagues and customers before we roll out the flexible plastic packaging recycling scheme wider."

Auxiliary equipment supplier Atlas Copco is donating $13,000 from its employee-led Water For All program to Can'd Aid to provide drinking water to communities in Texas impacted by extreme cold and snow.

Residents throughout the state lost water due to pipes that burst and infrastructure that couldn't operate properly during the extreme cold.

A truckload of 50,400 cans of water purchased through the donation will support about 8,400 individuals or approximately 2,100 families, officials with Atlas Copco said.

"We have hundreds of colleagues, their families and multiple locations across Texas," said Aaron Prato, vice president of Atlas Copco North America LLC, based in Rock Hill, S.C. "We see the devastation, and our hearts go out to everybody affected. This is just one way that we will play a part in the work to get the area back on its feet."