AZEK Declares Substantial Boost to Recycled Plastic Content

SEATTLE (Scrap Monster): Chicago-based AZEK announced detailed plans for growth of its plastics recycling operation.

In a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the company noted that it had spent $42.8 million in purchases of property, plant and equipment, majority of which was spent towards purchase of equipment for the recycling plant. In April last year, it had opened a 103,000-square-foot facility in Wilmington, Ohio. Also, in January this year, it had announced acquisition of Ashland, Ohio-based Return Polymers for a sum of $18 million in an all-cash deal.

The company used over 200 million pounds of recovered plastic and wood in its decking boards in the entire fiscal year 2019. AZEK expects to boost it by at least 25% during the 2020 fiscal. Incidentally, the company had increased use of recycled content by 20% during the previous fiscal year. Nearly 44% of all extruded products were made with recycled materials. This is likely to increase to 54% in fiscal 2020.

The increased use of recycled materials has led to significant reduction in use of virgin materials, which in turn has resulted in huge savings for the company. For example, the increased use of recycled PE has led to reduction in the use of virgin HDPE, which itself has led to savings of around $9 million per year.

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