For Immediate Release
More and more homeowners are asking builders to use PVC trims and decking instead of wood. With this growth, however, comes a new challenge for both suppliers and contractors – what to do with waste of a virtually indestructible product composed of chemicals.
Chris Dias, owner of Specialty Builders’ Supply, Inc. in Brewster, discovered one answer. He reached out to one of his manufacturers, Advanced TrimWright of East Taunton, and together they developed a unique recycling program. Now he is bringing along some of his best building customers – all members of the Homebuilders & Remodelers Association of Cape Cod - for an environmentally conscious “win-win” solution.
Advanced TrimWright (ATW), a leading PVC remanufacturer in the Northeast, provides Specialty Builder’s Supply with PVC recycling containers at no cost. It even drops them off and picks them up when full.
That would be a “win” by itself. But, there’s a strong marketing element to the program as well. ATW affixes Specialty Builder’s Supply’s (SBS) logo on the containers – again at no cost.
Dias is taking this opportunity one step further with customer service clearly in mind. So far, he has gotten the logos of Cape Associates, McPhee Associates, Polhemus Savery DaSilva and Rick Roy - and added them to the containers as well.
“It’s more than free advertising for all of us,” said Dias. “It’s communicating with our customers and the general public about our shared corporate values and concerns about the Cape’s environment. The amount of PVC waste collected in one of my containers equals about 50,000 plastic bottles. It needs to be recycled; and this program addresses that straightforwardly. We can rest assured that the PVC waste we collect in these containers will be ground up and used in new product.”
Dias explains that his enthusiasm for PVC products is based in part on the environment. “It doesn’t leach; it never rots; it holds paint three times longer than wood,” he says. “It would be very unfortunate if those benefits somehow were offset by PVC waste that is not being carefully managed and recycled.”
Dan Andrade, founder and CEO of Advanced TrimWright, hopes to expand the program to serve as many of his customers as possible.
“According to the Clean Air Council, more than seven billion pounds of PVC materials are thrown away each year, but only 18 million pounds – one quarter of one percent – are recycled,” said Andrade. “Often times, these products will end up in a landfill, but their components do not break down easily. To continue disposing without recycling will fill the landfills prematurely and does nothing to help re-use materials to create new products.”
Under the program, Dias and his contractor customers receive immaculate recycling containers measuring 44 inches wide by 44 inches deep. When full, ATW picks up the containers nd delivers them to a recycling company for remanufacture as new PVC products.
For more information, please contact Chris Dias at Specialty Builders Supply 508-896-8866.
