Dragaera

Wood Decks, was Re: SKJB / Dream Cafe' swag ideas

Tue Dec 14 16:15:19 PST 2004

>>>Never use plastic when you can use wood.
>>>      
>>>
>>Mileage varies. I'm building a deck to replace a rotten porch on my house.
>>Rather than using regular wood decking, I'm using a composite material
>>made
>>from roughly equal parts recycled plastic bags and saw dust.
>>    
>>
>I have to question whether it's better to encourage the lumber industry in
>cutting down all our forests, or to assist the plastics industry in
>expanding our landfills.
>
>  
>
You know those containers outside of grocery stores that you stuff full 
of your old plastic grocery sacks (if you do such things)?  That's where 
the wood/plastic composite people get their plastic.  Your bags aren't 
getting used to make new bags, they're getting sold to companies like 
Trex for chopping up and melting down.  Trex is keeping your 
polyethylene _out_ of the landfills.

>While lumber is a theoretically renewing resource, I'm not sure it can keep
>pace with demand.
>
>  
>
Once again, what would otherwise be a waste product is being put to good 
use.  Some lumber mills burn their sawdust as an energy source, but 
during certain times of the year they produce more sawdust than they can 
burn and some places actually pay companies to come and take it away for 
them.  No new trees are being cut down for the express purpose of being 
turned into wood composite. 

It's really a cool product.  Basically they are taking trash, combining 
the two components (it's a little more complicated than that, but not 
much), and then selling the product to you for a good deal more than you 
would pay for lumber.  From what I can tell of the finished product, 
it's well worth it.

Simbelmyne
Recovering Wood Science graduate, soon to be Registered Medical 
Technologist