100% Recycled Lawn Furniture
by Mairi Beautyman, Berlin, Germany on 02.23.06
Yes, it's still February...but we are already thinking about lazy weekends lounging about outdoors...Canadian-based CRP Products manufactures 100% recycled plastic lawn furniture. This classic recline, available in a rainbow of colors, never needs painting or staining, is waterproof, and arsenic, copper sulfate, and creosote toxin-free. It’s a $300 investment, but since it won’t rot and is unappetizing to insects, it will also outlast the usual pressure treated lumber—just leave it outside all year-around. Even better: it won’t blow away (according to the company representative I talked to). They also have tables, footstools, and a five-piece set. If you do decide you want to trade up for something different, or maybe a new color, all CRP products can be recycled all over again. ::CRP Products
My father is not a treehugger at all - quite the opposite actually - but turns out he is way ahead of the game on this one! On my deck sits 2 Adirondack chairs and a table that he made out of "drift wood". Similar furniture sits on my siblings decks as well. He is retired and lives on the Albemarle sound and after large storms and hurricaines wood and lumber is always floating up on his beach - so he makes stuff out of it! lol - it is more because he is really cheap and not a treehugger - but I thought it was funny anyway.
I'm curious about recycling this furniture once it's life as a chair is over - the website says it "can be recycled over and over". 1) I had been under the impression that plastic lumber could not be recycled - am I mistaken? 2) There are many plastic products that technically *can* be recycled, but realistically the only market for them is as a fuel source. Anyone have any information about this?
I don't know for certain, but I imagine it depends on what kind of plastic or plastics the 'lumber' is made out of - some plastic lumber is made by processing unsorted plastics, and that is probably more difficult to process and recycle additional times. Plastic can be more easily recycled over and over if it's sorted - if the manufacturers of these chairs has a source of waste plastic that's all one kind of plastic (say, polypropylene, for example), then the chairs they recycle out of it will be pure polypropylene too, and will be easier to recycle again.
I really think that this is a good environment solver, but one question. Where can i give grass clippings, I mow lawns and want to know how I can be a better earth saver
Yes this furniture can be recycled again. We manufacture outdoor furniture similar to CRP and we regrind our scrap and recycle it. This could be done with completed furniture but it would have to be disassembled and hardware removed.