By Ken Sakamoto, Star-Bulletin
Local companies are realizing the practicality of 'plastic lumber,'
which is used for the goat pen at Honolulu Zoo's children's petting zoo.
IMAGINE a roof that won't burn, won't blow off in high winds and is guaranteed for 50 years. On top of that, it's made of recycled materials. And it's reality.
Maui Community College is putting up the first building in Hawaii with a new type of roof that looks like wood but acts like a super-strong plastic.
"This is not plastic as you know it," said Matt Levesque of Eagle Roofing Products of Rialto, Calif. "This is a thermoplastic resin which creates a barrier against fire and UV damage."
Eagle has distribution rights in Hawaii for the material and markets it under the name Genesis.
The roof tops an "ecocottage" being completed by 16 community college students in the sustainable technologies instruction program. So far, along with the roof installation, the cottage has been framed and windows are installed.
Don Ainsworth, who heads the program, is very high on the new roofing material.
"We chose the Genesis roofing system for several reasons," says Ainsworth. "These are durability and the 50-year transferable warranty, fire safety, wind resistance, light weight, ease of application. (It is) water-catchment approved, manufactured from waste products that come from other manufacturing processes and the construction is fully recyclable."
Plastic roofing is a new twist for environmental homes.
GE Plastics of Pittsfield, Mass., invented the
NORYL plastic resin with its chemical property that inhibits fire damage. The resin is turned into cedar-look roofing panels sold under the name Perfect Choice.
"When exposed to a direct flame, the panels form a thick, expanded char that helps slow the spread of flames," said Mark Kifer, production manager for American Sheet Extrusion Corp. "This is an important factor in the fire-prone Western region."
In many western states that face high fire danger, regulations demand alternatives to cedar shake roofing.
So far, only about 70 homes in the nation have Perfect Choice roofs -- and most of these are in Washington and California.
The big marketing push didn't come until a recent National Plastics Exposition in Chicago.
"We expect the Perfect Choice shake roofing to be a big seller," Kifer said. "It has a 50-year warranty and sells for about $325 to $350 a square (covers 100 square feet) and it weighs only 62 pounds per square. You also can put it over asphalt roofing."
The cedar look-alike is only the start for plastic roofing. Kifer said a slate look-alike will be on the market soon, and a tile look-alike will be available late this year or early next.
Perfect Choice roofing comes in interlocking panels 18-inches by 39-inches, each with 13 plastic "shakes." Kifer said system resists winds up to 130 miles per hour and the roof is tough enough to walk on.
Next step: Ecovillage
For the Maui Community College project, Eagle Roofing and Valley Isle Building Materials donated the plastic roofing materials and Maui contractors Jim Smith and Roy Otani installed it on the ecocottage at no charge.After the cottage is finished next spring, it will be sold at auction and moved off campus. Sale proceeds will be used to help finance an "ecovillage" -- five three-bedroom dormitory units surrounding a pentagonal main building with classrooms and laboratories.
The college also is applying for a $100,000 grant from the federal Department of Energy for this project, to be built in 1998-99.
The ecovillage will use solar, wind and electrical power, as well as an on-site generator. It will have solar stills to treat water from an existing brackish well, composting toilets, passive cooling and ventilation, a propane-powered refrigerator and a biomass system to convert green waste and kitchen waste to soil extenders, fertilizers and methane gas.
Students living in the ecovillage will get a special education.
"Living in these units will give the students an understanding of not only the technology but also of lifestyle changes required in a sustainable setting, such as altering times for use of electric power and limiting water use," says Ainsworth.
It’s termite proof,
Stories by Jerry Tune
perfect for Hawaii, yet only
one isle company makes it
Star-BulletinTHE goats at the Honolulu petting zoo don't eat the fence any more. It's plastic now. And the Navy's fueling pier in front of Pearl Harbor's Halawa Gate is now protected by "plastic lumber."
This termite-proof lumber has countless uses in Hawaii. On the mainland, companies are backed up six to eight weeks with orders.
Yet locally, only Aloha Plastics Recycling Inc. on Maui makes plastic-lumber products.
"We're right on the edge right now," said Richard Doran, the company president. "We've made a small profit in the last six months, but we still have to make more to catch up."
He said about $1.5 million has been invested in the company since it started in 1993.
The small company has nine employees and a $150,000 annual payroll. Business has doubled so far this fiscal year, Doran said, and a 30 to 40 percent rise is expected next year.
His company makes standard lumber sizes, such as the 2-by-6-inch lumber for the fence at the zoo, as well as picnic tables, benches, fencing, mailbox posts, trash receptacles and speed bumps.
"We are now going after the residential market with decking and landscaping products," Doran said.
Doran's lumber can be found at the state's small boat harbors, Kewalo basin, Haleakala, Volcanoes National Park, trails on Tantalus and Ala Moana Park.
The biggest job so far was for $150,000 worth of lumber to complete the fueling pier at Pearl Harbor.
Most jobs run $15,000 to $35,000, Doran said.
The lumber is made from plastic shopping bags, milk cartons and other materials. The material is ground or melted down, then a stabilizer is added to guard against ultraviolet rays.
Buy recycled
What: The state Department of Business Economic Development and Tourism is sponsoring a pair of workshops on recycled products available in the marketplace:
