SiYE Interview - Trex Makes Circularity Work

About this episode

This episode features an interview with Trex executives discussing their innovative approach to recycling plastic film and sustainability practices.

Less than 2% of Americans can put plastic film in their curbside recycling bin, according to The Recycling Partnership . Meanwhile, the country generates millions of pounds of bags, pallet wrap, bubble mailers, and dry cleaner sleeves every year that machinery at materials recovery facilities is designed to reject. The plastic film problem has been the recycling industry's white whale for three decades — too contaminated for most processors, too light for most economics. But more than 30 years ago, Trex Company , then a small operation in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, decided to build its supply chain around exactly this material. By the end of 2024, Trex had upcycled more than 5.5 billion pounds of waste plastic film into composite decking and had become one of the largest plastic film recyclers in North America. On this episode of Sustainability In Your Ear, Amy Fernandez, Chief Legal and Sustainability Officer, and Zachary Lauer, Chief Operations Officer at Trex, discuss how the company designs an entire manufacturing process around feedstock variability, why Trex indexed its 2024 sustainability report to IFRS standards before any US regulator required it, and what has to…

People in this episode

Host: Mitch Ratcliffe

Guests: Amy Fernandez, Zachary Lauer

Topics covered

• plastic recycling
• circular economy
• sustainability
• manufacturing processes
• waste management

Keywords

• plastic film
• recycling
• Trex
• sustainability report
• composite decking
• waste plastic
• manufacturing
• feedstock variability

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Trex Company, The Recycling Partnership

Places: Shenandoah Valley

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