[email protected]

In a message dated 1/10/03 2:09:26 PM Central Standard Time,
[email protected] writes:

<< I'm also interested in the "lumber" made out of recycled trash bags. Our
city busstop benches here are made of it, and in Alamogordo there's a big
wooden kids' playground, but the boardwalks are made with that plastic wood.

I don't know how long it will last in the sun in the heat in Alamogordo, but
it has the feel of outlasting real wood at least ten times over. >>

Well, it's supposed to last 500 years I believe!!
Dh has built some stuff with it, people are starting to figure out that if
you're going to be in a house long term, you only have to build ONE deck (or
ramp or walkway or.....)
and you're done, that's it.
No staining every year or two, no replacing bad boards...very cool.
The thing I wonder about is what happens when someone rips a project
out...what do you do with wood that lasts 500 years? That's like landfill
nightmare stuff.

Ren
"The world's much smaller than you think. Made up of two kinds of
people--simple and complicated.....The simple ones are contented. The
complicated ones aren't."
"Unschooling support at pensacolaunschoolers.com

Heidi Wordhouse-Dykema

>The thing I wonder about is what happens when someone rips a project
>out...what do you do with wood that lasts 500 years? That's like landfill
>nightmare stuff.

You reuse it.
One of the beauties (about Trex at least) is that if you put a screw into
it, you pound down the top afterwards and the hole 'disappears' from
view. When you pull a board up, the screw pops clean from the board
(instead of sticking into it) and you can pound that out too so it looks
like a brand new board, ready to use! I've already had to pull up some
Trex boards (I put them in the wrong spot) and just re-used them in a
different part of the deck after hammering down the raised bits from where
the screws were. You can use 'em and reuse 'em until they've got too many
holes that've been pounded in. I figure that by that time, there'll be a
way to melt them back down and make new trex boards out of them. (To my
knowledge, Trex is a combination of recycled plastic and wood
fibers/sawdust (that would normally get burned as waste.))

Another cool thing, put them in the warm sun and they'll BEND to go around
curves. Cool! (although maybe not the best for hot-hot-Arizona/NM...)
Heidi