 |
| about us | newsletter | donate | contact us | privacy | home |
|
|
 |
|
 Sign up to receive our biweekly email with insights and analysis on building materials and environmental health.
Current Newsletter:
|
in Recycled Materials
Cites Children's Health and Safety BigToys has been a producer of high quality wooden play structures for over 35 years. Various changes in the commercial playground equipment market prompted BigToys to develop a choice of materials for our products that included a non-wood version. During our product development process, environmental and health concerns caused us to choose an alternative to the PVC coated steel used by virtually all of our major competitors. As producers of products intended to enrich children's lives, we feel it is our moral responsibility to select materials that are environmentally friendly and present no health risks. As a result, BigToys are completely PVC-free. Recycled steel tubing was selected for BigToys' vertical support posts and recycled plastic lumber was reviewed for use in our roofs, decks, enclosures and other components that were previously made from traditional dimensional wood lumber. Our initial hope was to utilize one of the widely available composite lumber products that are currently predominant in the market. However, it quickly became clear that any products containing wood fiber would not meet our needs for various reasons. These included high rates of moisture absorption, poor recyclability and relatively short manufacturers warranties. After extensive review, BigToys chose molded plastic lumber from Bedford Technology that is made of 100% post-consumer, recycled High Density Polyethylene. This material is impervious to moisture and is durable enough to be backed by a 50-year warranty. More importantly it contains no harmful materials such as PVC or polystyrene and can be easily recycled at the end of its use on our play equipment. BigToys products made from these recycled materials have exceeded our expectations and have proven to be a popular choice with our customers. Presently 40% of our orders and 60% of our proposed projects feature our recycled system.
We encourage other manufacturers as well as consumers to fully review all available choices when selecting recycled plastic or composite lumber products. Our experience indicates there are options that may be less intensely marketed, but are better choices when considering all criteria.
|
|
|||||
|
|||||||
