Green Zone FAQ - "Green" Playground Equipment by Play Mart

Post-Consumer simply means that a material or product has been used by an end-customer before being recycled. For example, if you empty a jug of milk and throw the milk jug into your recycling bin, it is post-consumer waste. Post-Industrial refers to scrap or waste from the manufacturing process. Both, if not recycled, would end up in the landfill. (read more/less)

Lean manufacturing practices and efforts to salvage waste from production lines at many companies has led to a decrease in commercial waste streams dumped in landfills. These practices, however, are certainly not industry standards. It is left to the determination of individual companies. Consumers play a key role in demanding accountability from companies for sustainable practices and buying products that use recycled materials, both post-consumer and post-industrial.

Look for eco-conscious third-party certifications such as SCS (Scientific Certification Systems), GreenGuard, GreenSeal, EcoLogo and ISO 14001.)

What is a “Carbon Footprint”?

What is a carbon footprint? It is a measure of the impact our activities have on the environment and in particular climate change. It relates to the amount of greenhouse gases produced in our day-to-day lives through burning fossil fuels for electricity, heating and transportation, etc.

The carbon footprint is a measurement of all greenhouse gases we individually produce measured in units of tonnes (or kg) of carbon dioxide equivalent.

How has Play Mart reduced its carbon footprint?

We go to great lengths to purchase materials within a limited region, whenever possible. We seek suppliers for almost all products from within a 500-mile radius from Play Mart’s headquarters in Somerset, KY. In addition, fully 70% of our manufacturing plant land-area is unused green space, incorporating rain gardens designed to absorb rainwater runoff.

(include map graphic of 500-mile radius around playmart, keep suppliers within this circle when possible)

What is Life Cycle Analysis (LCA)?

Used broadly to apply to any of a number of analytic techniques to evaluate the environmental impact of a material or a service throughout its life cycle from extraction or harvesting of raw materials through processing, manufacture, installation, use and ultimate disposal or recycling. It varies from Input-Output Analysis by evaluating physical properties instead of monetary flows. It is also known as life cycle assessment, eco-balance, or cradle-to-grave-analysis.

Are you an architect or builder? Register to download detailed information(LCA Slideshow located on Architec + Builder login area)

How has Play Mart used LCA?

Our internal Life Cycle Analysis guided us as we weighed the benefits of using post-industrial versus post-consumer HDPE plastics for production of RSP™.

Insert (graphic version) LCA charts here: (comparing post-industrial and post-consumer here)

Click here to read Observations from Life Cycle Analysis of plastics:

Both Post-Industrial and Post-Consumer plastics divert waste from landfills
Processing Post-Consumer plastics requires significantly higher energy and resource inputs to process for use
Post-Industrial plastic is generally the cleaner, purer and more economical option

Summary of Play Mart's Life Cycle Analysis of RSP™:

Relative to balance of financial investments, using Post-Industrial sources offer the same benefits (diverting waste from landfills) but exact fewer resources (e.g. land, labor, water and energy use)
Play Mart has determined that (at present) Post-Industrial HDPE plastics are the most environmentally-conscious and financially sensible option for Play Mart's production of RSP™.

How do milk jugs become lumber?

View our video showing the entire process of recycling milk jugs, grinding them into plastic pellets and then extruding into plastic lumber.

What does Sustainability mean?

"Sustainable development involves...meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs." (Earth Summit, Rio de Janeiro, 1992)

For Play Mart, it means Recovering yesterday’s plastics for today’s play™.

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Green Resources

Green Zone FAQ's

What is the difference between Post-Industrial and Post-Consumer recycled content?