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What's Happening from Environmental Building News

November 1, 2007

Recycled Decking Manufacturers Launch Virgin PVC Options

In a series of developments that may signal trouble for the composite decking industry, two industry leaders, TimberTech and Trex Company, appear to be hedging their bets by introducing new product lines made of virgin PVC. Popular in the residential market, PVC decking is considered more resistant to scratching, staining, and fading than composite decking, which is made from wood or other plant fibers and plastics, and often includes recycled content.

TimberTech’s new product, XLM (for “extreme low maintenance”), is made of a foamed PVC core surrounded by a solid PVC exterior. According to Tom Day, senior product manager, TimberTech is aiming for ”the certain portion of the deck-buying public that’s looking for the characteristics [stain and scratch resistance] that this product provides.”

Trex Escapes, the new foamed PVC decking from Trex, should start shipping in January 2008; the product is being made by Veka, Inc. Like Timber-Tech’s XLM, Trex Escapes will offer better stain, mold, and scratch resistance than the company’s composite decking products, according to CEO Andrew Ferrari. Like Day, Ferrari sees his company’s expansion into the PVC market as responding to a customer demand: “We want to offer people products, whatever their needs are,” he said.

Although both Trex and TimberTech cite consumer benefits for their new PVC products, the Healthy Building Network’s Tom Lent has a different view. “I consider these moves a disaster environmentally,” he said, adding that the health and environmental effects of the PVC life cycle should also be considered when looking at these decking products. Compared to the use of recycled plastics in composite decking, Lent said, the PVC decking “is a big step backwards.”

The introduction of PVC decking products by Trex and Timbertech, with the strength of PVC market leader Azek Deck, also raises questions about the health of the composite decking market. But both Day and Ferrari insist that the market is strong: “We’ve had a pretty good year,” said Day of Timbertech’s composite decking sales, “and we expect to be going into a pretty good year.” Asked whether PVC decking posed a threat to the composite decking market, Day replied, “We don’t see composites going away any time soon.”

At the same time, however, Trex announced that is was suspending operations at its composite decking manufacturing facility in Olive Branch, Mississippi. The facility, which employed 115 workers, had two production lines that were responsible for approximately 10% of the company’s manufacturing capacity. According to Ferrari, the company decided to suspend operations at the plant because it was only operating two lines out of the six possible at the plant, and it was more efficient and less expensive to move operations to another facility; he remarked that slowing in the housing and remodeling markets also contributed to the decision. However, the company intends to reopen the Olive Branch facility, and perhaps even expand it. “We’re still looking to make that facility as large as any we have,” Ferrari said.

– Allyson Wendt

For more information:

Trex Company
Winchester, Virginia
800-289-8739
www.trex.com

TimberTech
Wilmington, Ohio
800-307-7780
www.timbertech.com

DISCUSSIONS

Reader-contributed comments related to Recycled Decking Manufacturers Launch Virgin PVC Options - EBN: 16:11. Comments are listed with newest at the top.

Functionality Posted by Michael McGill on Nov 9, 2007, 12:31 PM
It seems to me that there is a reason that the Mfrs are moving toward virgin PVC. The quality and performance of the recycled board may be less than the virgin may offer. I know of an instance where a Timbertech deck product was used, it underperformed, and the deck owner eventually was paid back by Timbertech for the cost of materials.
We know that for green products to be viable, they MUST preform equal to or better than that which they are replacing. Does composite decking stand up to common alternatives?

Re: PVC? Posted by Mark Piepkorn on Nov 1, 2007, 08:14 AM
There are a lot of questions about PVC, primarily stemming from its manufacture and disposal - the worst disposal case (sidestepping the problem of plastics in landfills) being incomplete combustion, whether by accidental fire or improper incineration. During its useful life, PVC is generally considered benign.

(We similarly avoid listing epoxy- and polycarbonate-based products in GreenSpec due to the use of endocrine-disrupting, bioaccumulating bisphenol-A as a chemical precursor in the manufacturing process... though those products can also provide excellent service during their useful lives.)

As noted in the article, it's troubling that these manufacturers are throwing their hats into the virgin PVC ring. But, put simply, they wouldn't be doing it if they thought there wasn't a market. Like one of the corporate reps said in the piece, "We want to offer people products, whatever their needs are." Pretty telling, as statements go.

Continuing marketplace and professional education are needed, along with continued study of the conflicting data and opinions. It remains a complicated and contentious ongoing issue. See "USGBC Releases Final Report on PVC Avoidance" from our March 2007 issue of Environmental Building News:
http://www.buildinggreen.com/auth/article.cfm?fileName=160302a.xml

PVC? Posted by Jennifer Griffith on Oct 31, 2007, 07:14 PM
I thought the movement was away from PVC as there seem to be lots of questions as to its actual green characteristics?
Any comment on that?

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