by Brianna Crandall — July 16, 2018 — With China closing its doors to US recyclables, tens of thousands of tons of paper and plastic no longer have a clear path to reuse and are being sent to landfills, points out Houston-based waste-to-resources company Continuus Material Recovery. By acquiring the manufacturing assets of Des Moines-based ReWall Company, Continuus is poised to create an entirely new value network in construction building materials along with ushering in a new era for recycling.
To address the rising consumer demand for durable sustainable building materials and corporate zero waste goals, Continuus is taking post-consumer and post-industrial mixed paper and plastic destined for landfill and manufacturing them through a proprietary process into 4’x8’ building material boards for exterior walls and commercial roofs. The company already operates what it says is the largest waste separation facility in the country, and its technologies hold the promise of making closed-loop recycling work at a scale not accomplished previously.
This new product will be a welcome opportunity for companies committed to zero-waste goals, says the company. By using Continuus roof cover boards for their large commercial roof projects, companies will qualify for waste-diversion volumes as an offset towards their zero-waste reporting. Continuus boards are an advanced engineered composite building material that are extremely durable, engineered for superior building envelope performance.
Carl Rush, CEO, Continuus Material Recovery, remarked:
Throughout its history, ReWall has been a terrific example of innovative entrepreneurial spirit and we are grateful to bring their energy and drive into the Continuus team. With this acquisition we can accelerate waste-reduction opportunities through low-cost, easily implementable solutions and generate a universal sustainable raw material for a multitude of new products. Design and engineering is underway for an even larger facility where we will be producing hundreds of millions of board-feet of building materials, and then we’ll move into other areas. In the end, millions of tons of waste won’t end up in landfills.
Bridgett Luther, former president of the Cradle to Cradle Products Innovation Institute, pointed out:
When I was running the recycling program for the state of California we really didn’t have large enough markets for recycled material. Continuus has proven they can take mixed paper and plastics and use them to make products and create jobs here in the United States. That’s what recycling is really all about — closing the loop. Not just collecting the materials but turning them into products that can be used over and over.
For more information about the Continuus ReWall Roof Cover Board, visit the Continuus website.
