Why use recycled plastic lumber for a deck, chair or even railroad ties? Why not just use wood? Plastic lumber has important advantages over traditional hardwood.
We all are familiar with the problems associated with traditional hardwood. Many of us dislike the idea of building a deck, for instance, simply because of its high maintenance costs. Those that do build decks for their homes are all too familiar with the problems of pressure-treated wood. Warping, splintering, rotting, cracking and degrading are all common characteristics of traditional hardwood. To protect their lumber, people resort to expensive and time-consuming repainting and resealing. Yet, this does not guarantee that the lumber is 100% protected and will certainly not prevenct the local insect population from making a brand new home of a new deck. The problems of traditional pressure treated lumber not only bring headaches to consumers but to businesses and industry as well.For example, the railroad industry replaces approximately 14 million wooden ties a year out of the nearly 700 million ties used annually and this number is growing.