Trex Company and REI Co-op’s ongoing partnership will work to expand REI’s private Signature Camp near Bryce Canyon National Park in Utah.
For the past four years, the companies have partnered to divert plastic film waste collected at the specialty outdoor retailer’s stores and fulfillment centers for use in the making of Trex’s eco-friendly composite decking.
“At Trex, we believe the best memories are made outdoors so it made perfect sense to partner with a company like REI whose entire brand is built around the outdoor experience,” explained Leslie Adkins, group vice president of marketing and ESG development for Trex. “It’s been especially rewarding to work with one of our dedicated recycling partners to demonstrate the circularity of Trex decking in such a unique and tangible way.”
Through its NexTrex Recycling Program, Trex partners with thousands of forward-thinking organizations and retailers across the country to responsibly dispose of polyethylene (PE) plastic film, a key ingredient in the company’s wood-alternative decking, which is made from up to 95% recycled and reclaimed materials, the company said. One of the largest recyclers of plastic film in North America, Trex has upcycled more than 5 billion pounds of PE waste in the making of its outdoor living products over the past three decades.
REI joined the NexTrex commercial recycling program in 2020 and in that time has contributed nearly 2 million pounds of plastic film to the program through collections across its stores along with contributions from its fulfillment centers. These efforts further the company’s goal of achieving zero waste in its operations, which requires diverting at least 90% of waste from landfill or waste-to-energy.
Bringing these efforts full circle to REI’s campsite, the company worked with Trex to build 10 elevated decking platforms at its Signature Camp near Bryce Canyon. The deck boards used in these platforms contain the equivalent of more than 700,000 pieces of plastic film diverted from landfills.
“Creating access to the outdoors for all is core to who we are and how we design guided adventure experiences at REI,” said Justin Wood, REI Experiences director. “Our relationship with Trex helps us reduce our footprint by diverting plastic waste from landfills while also providing durable and attractive recycled materials for the construction of our private REI Signature Camps. That’s meaningful and important to REI and to our customers.”
