Trex recycling program helps organizations around the country be more green

WINCHESTER, Va. (WHSV) - A Winchester-based decking company’s recycling program is helping organizations around the country turn single-use plastics into something positive.

Trex uses its NexTrex program to educate people around the U.S. about the importance of properly recycling plastics.

“What goes into our boards, 50% of that is plastic film. So, the NexTrex is to help spread the word on what you can recycle, what you can’t recycle and what can go into the bins at the grocery store,” said Stephanie Hicks, Trex Materials and Recycling Programs Manager. “Education on recycling is always important. Anybody who has tried to recycle anything ever knows that there are a million rules, and depending on which locality you’re in or which county or city, the rules are different everywhere.”

Trex uses recycled plastic film from items like grocery bags and overwraps to build its decking boards.

“Not all plastic is created equal. We’re looking for soft, stretchy films versus ridged bottles or anything like that,” Hicks said. “They’re all kind of different, and Trex really likes to have the soft, stretchy films that could be your toilet paper overwrap, your paper towel overwrap, produce bags, newspaper sleeves, mailer bags — any of those things are easy things that are not grocery bags that you can also recycle at your grocery store.”

The company recycles hundreds of millions of pounds of plastic each year.

“We have a warehouse that all of our plastic goes into prior to being consumed,” Hicks said. “It is typically pelletized, and then we use it and mix it with wood dust, and out comes a decking board.”

The NexTrex program challenges community organizations like churches or schools to recycle 1,000 pounds of plastic bags and film through a local grocery partner. When an organization hits the goal, Trex awards it a custom-made bench.

“At least 200 schools annually from the state of Virginia participate,” Hicks said. “In fact, I think a couple of years ago, we had a school in Norfolk that collected over 20,000 pounds by themselves.”

Hicks said the NexTrex program continues to grow and that there are currently more than 3,000 participants around the U.S. The program is helping more and more people go green and learn how to properly recycle plastics.

“For the community and school programs, we estimate that in the past couple of years, we’ve recycled about a million pounds just from those programs annually,” Hicks said. “It helps people understand where their recycling is going [and] that it is being consumed domestically and going into a U.S.-made product.”

You can learn more about the NexTrex program here.