Recycled Plastic Lumber Saves Rainforests

Complete 3-component modular planters systems crafted to endure with hidden inner aluminum frame, rugged inner liner with advanced drainage to hide drip irrigation.

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.

Recycled plastic lumber saves rainforests like the one this combination recycling and trash bin made with RPL is located in.
Recycled plastic lumber saves rainforests like the one in which this Oahu Modern Combination Trash and Recycling Bin made with RPL is located. Tap the picture to link to more information and products crafted with recycled plastic lumber.

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.

chart showing the use of recycled plastic lumber replacing natural wood
The use of recycled plastic lumber has overtaken tropical hardwood

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.

The Perfect Outdoor Bench with Back in recycled rich Tropical Hardwood plastic lumber and marine anodized aluminum make it great choice at this yacht club.
The materials, simple modern elegance, and ergonomic comfort of The Perfect Outdoor Bench with Back make it great choice to use as a gallery, museum, yacht club, or park bench. Combining the warmth environmentally friendly Tropical Hardwood colored recycled plastic lumber, with the strength of marine anodized aluminum and 316-stainless steel, this modern wooden bench, handmade by American craftsmen, is perfect for both indoor and outdoor use as it is maintenance free and will last for decades.

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.

A picture above a link to an article on 2019, the year that the  rainforests first started burning because of climate change induced drought.
https://news.mongabay.com/2019/12/2019-the-year-rainforests-burned/

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.

Tap the picture to link to more information about this Custom weatherproof Point of Sale Cabinet and Modern Combination Trash and Recycling Receptacle
Tap picture to find out more about this Custom weatherproof Point of Sale Cabinet and Modern Combination Trash and Recycling Receptacle at an outdoor café. Instead of traditional tropical hardwood they use recycled plastic lumber to save the rainforest

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.

A modern Audubon Combination Trash and Recycling Bin, crafted with 3form Eco-resin panels, is an alternative to wood that helps stop the destruction of the tropical rainforest. The Audubon bin here is shown in a lounge of the Orlando International Airport. Click the picture to see more modern recycling and trash bins on DeepStream's website.
A modern Audubon Combination Trash and Recycling Bin, crafted with 3form Eco-resin panels, is an alternative to wood that helps stop the destruction of the tropical rainforest. Click the picture to see more modern recycling and trash bins on DeepStream’s website.

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.

Dozens of Modern Square and Rectangular Commercial Wood Planters, in tan and dark grey colored labor saving no-maintenance recycled HDPE plastic lumber, create a green lushly landscaped common area patio on the roof deck of an urban workforce housing apartment complex.
Commercial planters like these DeepStream Mariner Planters made with recycled HDPE plastic lumber, not tropical hardwoods, are a chic way to go green and conserve the Earth’s precious resources while supporting a commercial market for recycled plastic.

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.

DeepStream Design's trademark marine anodized aluminum leg extrusions
DeepStream Design’s trademark marine-anodized aluminum leg extrusions and engineered 3-part planter system extends the life of tropical hardwood by decades. Tap the picture to see more Mariner planters and options.

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.

Movable Commercial Planters made with RPL no only save the rainforest but they also require no maintenance and with DeepStream's rugged frame they can roll on caster wheels to be easily relocated. Tap the picture for a link to more information.
Movable Commercial Planters made with RPL not only save the rainforest, but they also require no maintenance. With DeepStream’s rugged frame, they can roll on caster wheels to be easily relocated. Tap the picture for a link to more information.

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.

The DeepStream’s modern Audubon combination trash and recycling receptacle, seen here outside a hotel built in the Craftsman style, is made using tropical hardwood which will last for decades. However the same effect can be recreated with the new generations of recycled plastic lumber to save the rainforests from needless destruction. Tap the picture to find out more on DeepStream’s website.
DeepStream’s modern Audubon combination trash and recycling receptacle using tropical hardwood will last for decades. However the same effect can be recreated with the new generations of recycled plastic lumber to save the rainforests from needless destruction. Tap the picture to find out more information on DeepStream’s website.

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 Custom Fixtures: Benches in a hotel gym made with recycled plastic lumber, aluminum and 316-stainless steel to last virtually forever. Not only is RPL waterproof so it doesn't absorb sweat it can be easily sanitized. Tap the picture to link to more bench ideas.
DeepStream Custom Fixtures: Benches in a hotel gym made with recycled plastic lumber, aluminum and 316-stainless steel to last virtually forever. RPL is waterproof so it doesn’t absorb sweat, and it can be easily sanitized. Click the picture for the DeepStream Modern Bench Page.

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.

Large recycled plastic commercial rectangular garden planters limit access, helping to create a beach club at an ocean side clubhouse, without using traditional tropical hard wood. This is a good example of how easy it is for communities to do thier part to save the rainforest while saving members dollars as well.
Large recycled plastic commercial rectangular garden planters limit access, helping to create a beach club at an oceanside clubhouse, without using traditional tropical hardwood. This is a good example of how easy it is for communities to do their part to save the rainforest, while saving members’ dollars, as well. Tap the picture to see more examples of commercial RPL planters.

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.

A white RPL Commercial Planter anchors a Security Screen Wall and Enclosure at LAX airport creating a unique outdoor dining spot for the Bob Hope USO. Tap the picture to find out more about the unique ways you can use of RPL in creating screen walls and enclosures instead of tropical hardwood to save the rainforests.
A white RPL Commercial Planter anchors a Security Screen Wall and Enclosure at LAX airport, creating a unique outdoor dining spot for the Bob Hope USO. Tap the picture to find out more about the unique ways you can use RPL to create screen walls and enclosures instead of tropical hardwood to save the rainforests.

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.

Large recycled plastic lumber wood planters for trees at Long House Reserve Garden. Tap picture for more information on Large Planters for Trees using RPL to save the rainforests.
Large recycled plastic lumber wood planters for trees at Long House Reserve Garden. Tap picture for more information on Large Planters for Trees using RPL to save the rainforests.

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.

A suite of weatherproof custom outdoor fixtures for condos hotel, and water parks constructed with recycled plastic lumber, RPL, instead of traditional tropical hardwood saving the businesses maintenance costs while saving the rainforest at the same time. Tap the picture to link to more information.
A suite of weatherproof custom outdoor fixtures for condos, hotels, and water parks constructed with recycled plastic lumber (RPL) instead of traditional tropical hardwood, reducing maintenance costs while saving the rainforest. Tap the picture to link to more information.

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.

Recycled Plastic Lumber, when paired with DeepStream's trademark anodized aluminum frame system, can even make large items possible with this non-structural plastic like this enclosure for large pool towel return carts. With anodized aluminum there is no paint or powder coating to fail so they can be cleaned with a pressure cleaner. Tap picture to link to more information.
Recycled Plastic Lumber, when paired with DeepStream’s trademark anodized aluminum frame system, can make even large items possible with the non-structural plastic, like this enclosure for large pool towel return carts. With anodized aluminum, there is no paint or powder coating to fail, so they can be pressure cleaned. Tap picture to link to more information.

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.

Trees for the Future Logo
Trees for the Future their Forest Garden program has many positive benefits for the earth and its people, in addition to planting trees.  For more information follow this link: Trees.org

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.

Farm-to-Table is a home run for Boston at Red Sox Fenway Park

Farm-to-Table is a home run for Boston at Red Sox Fenway Park

Boston’s Green City Growers working with Recover Green Roofs and the Boston Red Sox and Fenway Park brought Fenway Farms to Red Sox Nation!

Large Garden Planter

Installed and launched for opening day of the 2015 season, Fenway Farms’ 5,000 square foot roof deck over the Front Office provides fresh, organically grown vegetables and fruit to Red Sox fans dining at Fenway Park’s EMC Club restaurant.

Not just for show, a meaningful 5,900 pounds of fresh produce – everything from kale to broccoli to hot peppers – are harvested each growing season at innovative Fenway Farms to give back to the community!

Green City Growers partnered with Recovery Green Roofs, to bring farming to the roof of Fenway Park.  Recover Green Roofs is the Somerville-based green roofing company that installed Fenway Farms. Recover Green Roofs was responsible for getting the soil on the roof, garden design and the sophisticated labor and water saving irrigation system, while Green City Growers is responsible for the farming operation.  Donations to the community are handled by Lovin’ Spoonfuls.

Around the corner on the Strega Deck, more produce is grown in an upscale event space behind the private corporate suites. DeepStream Designs, founded to provide an alternative to the wasteful use of tropical hardwood lumber, was selected to provide the light-weight, cost saving multi-section aluminum planter frame system fitted with recycled HDPE lumber planks, recycled from milk bottles.

Large Rectangular Garden Planter
Large Commercial Garden Planter

These attractive planters have an internal plastic liner and hide drip irrigation lines, and their aluminum structural design ensures the planters will last for decades.  The liner-within-the planter design also provides a thermal break so that the root systems never overheat from solar gain.

Large Restaurant Planter
Large Modular Restaurant Planters are more economical than standalone planters and have waterproof liners with advanced drainage and hide drip irrigation and wiring for lights and speakers.

The Strega Deck opened in 2016. It is a Fenway Farms-inspired event venue that is rented out as part of ticket packages and for special events. The produce grown on the Strega Deck is donated to the community by Green City Growers’ food rescue partner, Lovin’ Spoonfuls.

Large Garden Planter

DeepStream Designs is a Miami-based design and manufacturing company using American craftsmen to build these durable planters, as well as recycling and trash bins, and a host of custom products, all of which feature a Lifetime Structural Warranty.

Large Garden Planter

DeepStream has partnered with Trees for the Future to plant 50 trees for every planter sold and 100 trees for every bin. DeepStream has now planted more than 375,000 trees through this extremely efficient non-profit.  For more information check out Trees.org.

Large Garden Planter

Sustainable Design: measure twice cut once

Multi-section planters that need to be reconfigured to fit a smaller space
Multi-section planters that need to be reconfigured to fit a smaller space

A key component of sustainable design is adaptability. Good design allows for the replacement, or reworking, of components to preserve the value and materials of an earlier design when a situation requires it.  Even if that situation arises early in the life cycle of a design.

Multi-section planters that has been reconfigured to fit a smaller space
Multi-section planters that has been reconfigured to fit a smaller space

Nowhere is that more apparent than when an error has been made on large complex projects where a miscalculation between initial measurements and “as-built” dimension means that components ordered months earlier in a project do not fit when finally installed.

Close up of multi-section planters that has been reconfigured to fit a smaller space
Multi-section planters that has been reconfigured to fit a smaller space

You can see in this example where DeepStream’s modular planter design allowed us to cut down the lengths of planks in the middle section of a multi-section planter to accommodate an unrecorded change in dimensions at very little cost in dollars or materials.

While the wood will take a week or so to fade to the match color the same design feature allows for replacement of parts or further adaptation for the life of the planter.

To put the principal of Sustainable Design to work for your project go to www.DeepStreamDesign.com

Garden Planters & Sustainable Design

Sustainable Design and American Craftsmen set
DeepStream Designs Garden Planters apart

DeepStream Designs’ mission is to provide alternative products with a timeless design that are engineered and constructed so that they will endure for generations, reducing the impact on the earth’s resources, and providing the lowest cost of ownership over time.  We are philosophically opposed to building cheap products that will be thrown away in a couple of years, or will end up costing our customers more over time.

Restaurant planters.
Complete 3-component modular planters systems crafted to endure with hidden inner aluminum frame, rugged inner liner with advanced drainage to hide drip irrigation.

Why are DeepStream Designs’ Mariner Planters different from the “knocked together” ones you see falling apart everywhere?

Longevity: Classic modern design engineered for the lowest life-cycle cost of any wooden planter never goes out of style.

DeepStream Design proprietary mariner aluminum extrusion
DeepStream Designs trademark proprietary marine anodized aluminum extrusion create timeless planters with a Lifetime Structural Warranty

Frameless Design: DeepStream’s proprietary marine-anodized legs and Anti-Gravity frame system contain and direct the incredible differential forces wood creates when it expands and contracts in the rain and sun, delivering decades of attractive service.  Wood that is bolted or screwed together will tear itself apart in time as each piece expands and contacts at different rates, because they come from different trees and parts of trees.

Customization: Mariner and Audubon legs are available in various shapes that allow us to quickly build modular planters of infinite dimensions in any rectilinear configuration. They can also be single-sided to reduce costs. While standard leg heights are 21”, 31”, and 42”, they are available up to 144”.

Wood rectangular planter with trellis
DeepStream Planters are engineered to hold a trellis and have waterproof inner liners with advanced drainage that hide drip irrigation and wiring for lights
high quality multi section wood and aluminum planter
Complete high quality multi section wood and aluminum planter with inner liner and advanced drainage, drip irrigation, and hidden wiring for lights.
really long wood planter
DeepStream Designs light weight 800′ multi-section planter at the NFL NYC headquarters

Construction: DeepStream products are manufactured by American craftsmen, using yacht-building techniques and materials, and allow for damaged pieces to be replaced at the manufacturer’s direct cost via our unique “Core Replacement Program.” Proprietary dielectric paste prevents the stainless steel fasteners from seizing in the aluminum legs for decades of access. Proprietary copper treatment of any closed holes in the wood enhances the tropical hardwood’s natural qualities to prevent wood rot for decades.

planter with stainless steel trellis
DeepStream Designs woo planter with stainless steel trellis have ain inner aluminum frame to support a separate waterproof liner with advanced drainage.

Better planting environment with less weight: Your plants will grow better with less soil volume in many difficult sunny locations, because our planter-within-a-planter design prevents the root ball from overheating. Our design ensures that the sides of the liner holding the root ball are never exposed to the direct sunlight, which can steam a root ball that is uninsulated by a thick, heavy layer of soil. The outer planter box also hides drip irrigation lines, and provides for better controlled drainage, which is an important design consideration for balconies and roof decks.

Rugged waterproof food safe plastic planter liners.
4 of DeepStream Designs 16 rugged,waterproof, food safe plastic planter liners.

Integration:  Part of an integrated system that includes recycling and trash bins, wall systems, and signage, DeepStream Designs planters allow Architects and Landscape Architects to meet their clients’ goals with seamless plans, delivering cost effective solutions to a vital aspect of their projects’ sustainable design goals.

Common Area Trash and Recycling Container.
DeepStream Design Common Area Trash and Recycling Container
Wood Trash Bins with ergonomic side load door for leakproof bin.
DeepStream large volume Oahu Trash Bins with ergonomic side load door for leakproof bin.
Garden Planter mounted security Screen Wall.
Garden Planter mounted security Screen Wall at LAX airport.

Isolation: We avoid the damaging contact with the ground and the planting material that you see in other planters by using molded recycled plastic liners that will never leak, and that prevent the soil from coming into contact with the wood. Our HDPE plastic feet also prevent contact between the legs and the ground or standing water, preventing galvanic deterioration of the finish.

Rugged, waterproof, garden planter liner with advanced drainage
DeepStream Designs rugged, waterproof, garden planter liner with advanced drainage

Materials: Stainless steel fasteners, marine-anodized 6063-T5 aluminum, 3/4” solid tropical hardwood planking, recyled plastic planking and high-density plastics that not only last for decades, but also allow for a more elegant and modern design.

DeepStream Design's proprietary aluminum extrusion create cost effective multi-section modular planters
DeepStream Design’s propriatary alumium extrusion create cost effective multi-section modular planters with a Lifetime Structural Warranty

Value: DeepStream sells direct with pricing based on volume, and has very low overhead. This allows us to use the best materials and pay a living wage to American craftsmen, while ensuring that our customer is getting the lowest lifecycle cost for their project and the planet.

Green: DeepStream is committed to doing its part to save the planet by using recycled or easily recyclable materials. Our engineering and materials selections ensure that the products will last as long as possible, breaking the “throw-away” cycle, and protecting the earth’s resources. For every planter we build, even if it is from plastic lumber made from recycled milk bottles, we plant 50 trees in our customer’s name through Trees for the Future. For each recycler we build, we plant 100 trees.

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