Overview on Plastic Lumber

The various types of plastic lumber vary from manufacturer to manufacturer like for the machining purpose plastic lumber is similar to thick and dense wood. The purchaser goes for buying the lumber only after doing the full research, which helps him in deciding the plastic lumber that will best meet his need.

There are wide varieties of plastic lumber floating in the market. The components of 100% plastic include HDPE material, typically from waste milk jugs and PET comming mostly from used bottles and several other recovered plastics.

Recycled plastic lumber

Recycled plastic lumber is made from a fifty-fifty mix of plastic and reclaimed wood sawdust from manufacturing plants that would otherwise be useless and discarded. It provides an excellent alternative to wood with much longer durability and life. With its quality to resist leaking of chemicals into the soil or water the plastic outlives the wood products. Recycled plastic lumber can be about 30% more expensive that wood. Many manufacturers offer a guarantee over a long period of years.

Plastic lumber is categoriesed into three types: hollow plastic lumber, solid lumber and structural solid plastic lumber. Structural plastic lumber is capable of withstanding loads much greater than typical plastic lumber products. Structural plastic lumber is usually improved by adding fiberglass to give it more strength and minimize expansion. Polywood, Inc from South Plainfield, N. Jersey, which supplies the structural plastic lumber, performed tests in which Polywood’s plastic lumber reaches about three times the stiffnes of ordinary plastic lumber.

There are approximately hundred plastic recycling plants in Canada. Plastic lumber plants in Canada have more promises of more set-ups and developments in the near future. In the light of all plastic lumber has definitely and surely an upper hand in comparison to the total benefits made available by the wood products.