A project to show how vinyl building products can be easily recycled also provided a facelift for a home in Louisville, Ky., where a non-profit group runs an out-patient program helping people transform their lives.
The New Leaf Clinic provides transitional housing for individuals coping with substance abuse disorders, mental illness or both.
One of the group's houses got an exterior update thanks to the Revinylize Recycling Collaborative — a national recycling program started by the Polymeric Exterior Products Association (PEPA) — and project partners Westlake Royal Building Products and Mueller Distributors.
PEPA recently identified a potential 300 million pounds of post-consumer vinyl siding ready for recycling each year.
However, there's no system in place in key markets across North America to divert vinyl siding from landfills.
The Alexandria, Va.-based trade group is going after it through the Revinylize Recycling Collaborative.
To introduce the program to Kentucky — it is already in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee and Toronto — Revinylize organizers turned to nonprofit groups in Louisville to find a worthy home for the first project.
In addition to charitable support, the goal of the renovation project was to raise awareness about post-consumer vinyl siding recycling with local trade groups, municipalities, environmental and consumer sectors.
The selected home is a place that offers treatment and provides clients a secure place during recovery, which is a critical component of the group's mission, according to Bethany Kaestner, director of housing for New Leaf Clinic.
The collaborative removed about 2,500 pounds of old vinyl siding for recycling into new materials and installed eco-friendly white siding and gray trim donated by Revinylize partners Westlake Royal Building Products and Mueller Distributors.
"We are so excited for this house to be blessed with new siding from Revinylize," Kaestner said in a news release. "It lifts up the prestige and visibility of our home in this neighborhood. Recovery is all about rebirth, and so is Revinylize, so it's wonderful for us to be a part of their work here."
The project caught the attention of the City of Louisville's Waste Management District, which expressed interest in scaling the model citywide.
"Louisville is setting the stage for other locations across North America to embrace sustainable growth through innovative recycling solutions," PEPA Vice President Matt Dobson said.
The Revinylize Recycling Collaborative began in December 2021 with a pilot program to reclaim used vinyl building products in Cleveland, parts of Northeast Ohio and Toronto. About 500,000 pounds of aftermarket residential siding was diverted from landfills and recycled through 2023.
PEPA then officially launched Revinylize with the PVC Pipe Association and the Plastic Pipe and Fittings Association (PPFA) and the Vinyl Institute, which provided a funding grant.
Revinylize is close to getting a commitment from the New England region in 2025 for its next project.
That would be a big step for PEPA, which aims to recycle 5 million pounds of post-consumer rigid vinyl during 2025.
Vinyl siding is installed on about 70 percent of newly built single-family houses in the Northeast, according to U.S. Census figures.