Specifying recycled plastic lumber saves rainforests by eliminating demand for tropical hardwood and creating a sustainable market for plastic waste. That makes recycled plastic lumber (RPL) a win for the environment, our customers, and society.
Recycled plastic lumber saves rainforests at no loss to our customers in almost every application, so why wouldn’t you want to specify it instead of tropical hardwood?
RPL reduces maintenance costs while enhancing your property with timeless beauty, making a positive environmental statement for your brand by eliminating needless destruction of tropical rainforests, which is a leading component of climate change.
In 2009, DeepStream started offering recycled plastic lumber (RPL) as an alternative to tropical hardwoods. More and more of our customers have been choosing RPL for planters and weatherproof fixtures over the past several years. By 2017, RPL was specified more often than natural wood.
In 2023 RPL has increased to over 88% of Sales
Recycled plastic lumber is a win for the environment and for our customers.
Weatherproof RPL reduces maintenance costs while enhancing your properties and brands, exhibiting timeless beauty and making an environmental statement.
We encourage you to seriously consider the cost benefits and the long-term appearance of RPL versus tropical hardwood. By selecting this material for your project, you are making a positive environmental statement to your customers.
In 2019 alone, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the center of the second largest rainforest after the Amazon, leased a massive 650,000 hectares (1.6 million acres) of pristine rainforest to aggressive Chinese logging companies. They also leased many more huge tracts of old growth forest to companies from other countries that log and then plant palm oil forests, forever depriving gorillas, elephants, and other animals of the diverse rainforest ecosystem they rely on.
Please, before specifying tropical hardwood for your projects, look at the comprehensive worldwide overview of the problem created by using tropical hardwood presented at this link:
Eliminate needless rainforest destruction by specifying DeepStream RPL planters and fixtures. The RPL that DeepStream uses is backed by a 50-year limited warranty by its manufacturer.
DeepStream was created in a response to a need. While building a condominium project, I reviewed the “universe” of garden planters and receptacles. I wanted planters, receptacles, and custom fixtures for my project that were just not available.
Wood planters were carpenter-built with wood-on-wood construction. As I’ve detailed in my Planter Blog, they just don’t last. Carpenter-built wood planters tear themselves apart in 3-4 years in Miami’s hot tropical climate.
I did find other materials suitable for the indoor recycling and trash receptacles I was designing, such as the 3form Eco-resin panels shown on the receptacles in the picture above at the Orlando International Airport, where the airport authority is committed to sustainability and DeepStream. These panels, however, were not a suitable replacement for wood in exterior, especially wet, locations.
Wasting valuable wood harvested from the world’s rapidly diminishing rainforests, let alone with carpenter-built construction methods, not only destroys the forests, it also wastes your time, money, and energy.
Unfortunately, recycled plastic lumber was not an option when DeepStream was founded. Now using RPL is not just good ecological stewardship, it’s common sense.
If your project absolutely must use tropical hardwood, then specify DeepStream’s Mariner planter system. Do not use carpenter-built wood planters that will fall apart in 3-5 years.
Wood expands when it gets wet. DeepStream’s trademark marine-anodized aluminum extrusion, along with its hidden aircraft aluminum structural frame, contains wood’s expansionary forces. Honor the wood you use by ensuring it lasts for decades, and back it with a Lifetime Structural Warranty.
Engineered with the principles of Sustainable Design, our products stand the test of time. Our engineered modular system uses, or reuses, hardwood in a design that honors the wood. Deepstream’s trademark aluminum extrusions allow construction that extends wood life by decades. This is true with all of DeepStream’s products.
Harvesting tropical hardwood destroys important habitats around the world, even if “sustainably harvested,” as hardwood trees take 50 years or more to reach maturity.
According to the Yale School of Forestry, while estimates vary, it is thought that between 30 and 50% of all certified Tropical Hardwood shipped into the United States has been “Greenwashed,” meaning that shipments have been provided with falsified and counterfeit documentation.
In some countries like Peru, it’s estimated that 90% are illegally logged, devastating their Amazon watershed. For more information click here: “Greenwashed” Timber and FSC certification.
Offset your project’s carbon footprint by using recycled plastic lumber and planting far more trees than you use.
We plant trees for you automatically through Trees for the Future as a matter of principle. Planting trees through Trees for the Future provides families with more than just trees and food. It provides income, empowerment, unity, leadership, education, and even saves lives. The program teaches people to value themselves and their environment, and they see amazing improvements in their standard of living.
DeepStream plants 50 trees for every planter and 100 trees for every fixture you purchase. Our customers receive a certificate to use in your marketing to let your customers know that you care about the environment.
To date, with proceeds from the sale of our products, DeepStream has planted more than 500,000 trees in our customers’ honor. This reflects our customers’ commitment to the environment that we are all leaving for future generations.
DeepStream makes it easy and cost-effective to go Green and stop contributing to climate change. By selecting recycled plastic lumber for your order, you will be preserving the world’s rainforests, the cooling lungs of the earth, while creating a sustainable market for post-consumer and post-industrial plastic waste.
Products made with non-structural Recycled Plastic Lumber planks inside DeepStream’s unique structural aluminum frame are a perfect choice for outdoor placement, while making a strong environmental statement.
Please discuss saving this diminishing resources for future generations with clients that specify tropical hardwoods.
Our recycled plastic lumber requires no maintenance and lasts for decades without fading, saving your clients money, while looking better over time than wood ever will.
DeepStream creates many custom fixtures that use recycled plastic lumber.
Custom Fixtures, not custom prices, for hotels, restaurants, theme parks, water parks and spas. DeepStream’s proprietary frame system allows us to create a coordinated collection of durable custom fixtures. This approach provides visual continuity throughout your property, indoors or out.
Custom fixtures shown above include a point-of-sale enclosure with marine-anodized aluminum tambour door and frame. It features an insulated 316 stainless steel top, hinges, drawer slides, and handle.
The modern combination trash and recycling receptacles are also constructed with recycled plastic panels. Easily wiped clean, RPL does not stain and can be pressure cleaned – perfect for food service outlets. Because DeepStream’s trademark aluminum extrusions are marine-anodized, there is no paint or powder coating to fail. Turning on silent Delrin bushings, the bin push flaps are constructed of unfinished 5086 marine aluminum, making them easily cleaned and refinished.
Waterparks use a lot of towels. One of the RPL cabinets in the center holds fresh towels. The other cabinet houses a roll-in towel return cart.
If you have any questions, or there is anything DeepStream’s dedicated American craftspeople can design and build for you using Recycled Plastic Lumber, please contact us to discuss your project.
There is never a fee for design or quotes. Sheila Boyce has designed thousands of installations, so she is a great free and friendly resource at your disposal. Call her at: 305-857-0466 or email dsdmiami@gmail.com.
