Plastic film: a deep dive

A few months ago, we went on a journey of our warehouse and our partner, Trex, to show you how your plastic film gets a new life as composite decking. Read more here.

We now want to go a bit deeper and talk more about the recycling process and how we work with our partners.

How does it work exactly?

Trex is the national leader in recycling plastic film which means primarily polyethylene (PE), both high-density (HDPE) and low-density (LDPE). HDPE is labelled #2 and LDPE is labelled #4. Trex relies on the majority of their material to be #2 or #4 in order to make high quality, long lasting material from our recyclables.

This is where you come in. Our members are amazing and work hard to keep their plastic clean, dry, and sorted. This means that we as a community can make sure that over 95% of what our members give us are exactly what Trex needs.

“Ridwell members are an incredibly valuable source of high quality plastic film, which is a key ingredient in the making of Trex decking. We are thrilled to be working with such a conscientious and passionate community.”

Stephanie Hicks,

What about that other 5%?

Some of what our members give us can’t be recycled. The majority of what we receive but can’t recycle falls into a few categories:

• Metallicized plastic, like silver chip bags

• Mixed material, like paper and plastic bubble envelopes

• Dirty (food-contaminated)

We also get stuff that may look and feel like PE but are made of several different types of plastic. Inevitably, some make it in our bales. Because our community is diligent, these materials don’t have a negative impact on what we give to Trex. We are proud to say that our community is one of Trex’s best partners for quality and recyclability.

But what happens if I put stuff in there that isn’t on the list of acceptable items?

Don’t worry! When you give us your plastic film, we screen it and bale it up with all of the plastic film from our community. Because the quality of what our member’s give us is so high, the ‘blend’ or mix of materials that we give to Trex negates any concern of a few items that may not be optimal for their process. Those ‘less-than-ideal’ items still get made into composite lumber and it’s our job to work directly with Trex to ensure that our ‘blend’ is always supportive of their recycling processes.

Because of your hard work, we’re keeping literally tons from the landfill every day. Thank you!