Attractive, Durable, Smart. What is Recycled Plastic Outdoor Furniture

 

Dock of the Bay, what a comfortable place to lay

Probably the first thing people think about when considering outdoor furniture is looks,  comfort  and price.  They are maybe redoing their backyards and want something special to really make the area shine, glow to look outstanding, to make their friends and neighbors say “wow! this is fantastic!” And there is nothing wrong with that after all we all want nice things and we certainly want to wow our friends. We want comfort and we want something that is going to last, especially nowadays, with a tight economy and more awareness of  our environment, durability is a real consideration. And finally we want price. Most folks look at something and then look at the price, which makes sense because if it is out of your price range then you probably drop it from consideration, unless of course one or both of the first two mentioned criteria s are so fantastic that you just have to have it or it is the perfect color for that odd little corner. But generally speaking we have a price range and more or less try to stay within that range.

 

So attractive, durable (and comfortable) affordable or good value, are all top considerations when looking at outdoor furniture and a lot of other things as well. Where does the smart part come in? Well, getting a good value is smart isn’t it. Getting something that will last for a very very long time is smart isn’t it, turning old plastics into useful and attractive and durable outdoor furniture is real smart, wish I had thought of that. Certainly keeping non biodegradable plastic out of landfills is smart and owning outdoor furniture that never needs painting, can be left out all year round in any weather, and is pretty much indestructible is top of the class smart.

Now the only question is what style and what color, all of our Poly-wood outdoor furniture comes in 7 earth tone colors, and several styles also come in 6 more vibrant colors. We offer everything from bar stools to chaise lounges, to rockers to deep seating with planter boxes thrown in for good measure.

 

Interesting Fun Facts About Recycled plastic

If you have seen our recycled plastic furniture in person or online, you know it is colorful, you know it is sturdy, you might also have noticed the wood grain texture, which by the way not all manufacturers have, and if you had the chance to sit in a chair you know how comfortable and solid it really is. But what you probably never even wondered about ( okay  a few folks did wonder and asked me) is just how many milk jugs does it take to make one Adirondack chair? Well of course there are many variables, what style of chair, what size, and of course what day it  was it made on. Just kidding the day it was made on doesn’t matter, of course if it was sunny outside… I’ll stop sorry. It is estimated to take 240 typical 1 gallon plastic milk jugs to make one Adirondack type chair.

Now also keep in mind that recycled plastic furniture is not made using milk jugs alone. Nope, fascinating factoid number 2, the plastic that is used is #2 HDPE. This is a specific type of plastic and is used for  a pretty wide range of items:

• Cereal box liners
  

  Some different #2 platics

• non carbonated beverages ( juices mostly)
• Margarine -”butter” tubs (refers to an old commercial if you don’t’ remember just skip ahead, if you do remember you probably can’t skip anymore)
• Deli food packaging
• Bread trays
• Household cleaners
• Detergents.

There are more, check this EHow site for even more info.

In 2007 , according to the EPA, 29.3% of HDPE was recycled in the U.S.   Wow! that is a lot bread trays and butter tubs, a person will likely need some detergent to wash the deli stains out of their shirt  and of course laundry work could make a person thirsty so they might just pop open a non carbonated drink to cool their pipes. Which reminds me, plastic piping is also  often made with  HDPE  because of its chemical resistance properties.

One more little marvelous morsel of meaningful musings. From the days of dumping garbage pretty much anywhere or even burning it in a backyard incinerator (guilty!) when recycling  meant to ride your bike again and landfills were amazing “dumps” of anything and everything, up until 1990 when the percentage of MSW (municipal solid waste) that was being recycled hit 15% of the total, we are now as of 2008 recycling at a rate of 33.2% of the total MSW. Sure, still lots of room for improvement but it would be hard to deny we are heading in the right direction.

Jerry And Max Bodega Bay CA

So, while  I sit here warm and cozy and my recycled plastic chairs sit outside, safe in any weather, I can certainly take comfort in knowing there is plenty of HDPE available to make lots of Adirondack chairs and tables, and ottomans too,  and all you wonderful folks who are reading this now know that not only will you get a fantastic chair(s) and tables that will last this just side of forever, you will be partaking in this huge and positive recycling program.

I think you  some cookies and milk, and remember to drop the milk jug into your local recycling bin, it just may come back to you as part of an Adirondack chair.

Outdoor Furniture Is the Last Thing On My MInd

Bet the title  is exactly how a lot of folks are feeling right now. Here it is  less than two weeks before Christmas, you still have most (okay ALL of your shopping to do), there is a real good chance that wherever you are in the USA your faced with some pretty severe weather, the economy is still struggling, and no matter your political persuasion things are less than rosy.

And this guy is writing about outdoor furniture? Well, I did say it was the last thing on my mind. For me that is true  because my outdoor furniture is made of recycled plastic and is therefore virtually indestructible. I don’t have to think about did I cover the chaise up, or I gotta bring the chairs inside, or painting or this or that or anything else about it. My outdoor furniture from Polywood can be buried in  snow or awash in torrential rain. It can be covered with ice. It can be sitting on a now muddy lawn. No matter the weather come spring it will be ready to go. All I will need to do is hose it off, let it dry and we are ready for spring and summer.

Unlike wood, that rots or splits or splinters or aluminum that fatigues and rusts or wrought iron that gets rusty or any other material used for outdoor furniture,  my patio furniture  is quite simply immune to such things, which  means I don’t have  anything to prevent from happening or fix if it did happen.

In fact, I can rest completely assured that whatever is going on outside, my Polywood recycled plastic outdoor  furniture will be just fine.

I can cross it off my list, which is nice now we are getting somewhere, now all that is left is the Christmas shopping.

Ho ho ho and I hope all of you have a wonderful Christmas and we all have a fantastic new year!

Outdoor Furniture That Stands Up So You Can Sit Down

Well it doesn’t actually stand, but our furniture which is made of 99.5% recycled plastic certainly can withstand (there is that word again) pretty much anything the weather can dish out, including snow storms and blizzards, torrential rains and high winds. Actually this is not much of a feet ( oops thinking about that word stand again-) feat at all. See, recycled plastic first of all is non porous. So the wet and damp of winter is not going to get into the material. This is key, because if nothing penetrates the surface, then any resulting damage like mold, rot, splitting, cracking, mildew  simply doesn’t have a leg to, well you know what I mean. Okay your saying, but what about the screws and stuff that hold the chairs and table together? Good point, and the answer to that is the fasteners, are made of stainless steel and have a coating of XYLAN!  Now for the guy in the back rolling his eyes and heading to the exit let me explain this a bit. Xylan is a synthetic material that has been used on our space shuttle systems for heat protection. It is a coating originally meant to protect the shuttles and has also been found to be good for overall protection against other harsh elements. Not magical but it does add another layer of protection against rust and corrosion.
Right now in most regions of the USA folks aren’t sitting outdoors, in fact in a lot of places outdoors is buried in several feet of snow. if your outdoor furniture is made of recycled plastic you can take comfort that when the freezing snow and wind and rain and sleet finally do give way to warm breezes and long summer nights, your furniture will be ready to go, you won’t have to repair winter damage, you won’t need to sand, stain, seal or paint, if fact you won’t need to do anything  but just hose it off grab a cool drink and sit down! That is so cool I can hardly , well, stand it.

Long Lasting, Maintenance Free, and Comfortable Outdoor Furniture

This time of year a lot of folks, after having pulled out the outdoor furniture from last year or years before and finding it rusty or moldy, split- cracked- or splintered or in need a a fresh coat of paint or stain or any of a whole range of shortcomings that befall typical outdoor furniture, are thinking about just buying something new. It is after all the American way. Amazingly a lot has changed just from last year when you or someone you know folded up the last deck chair and packed it into the garage or storage shed or pulled the almost leak proof vinyl cover over it and pronounced the end of summer.

Purse strings have tightened in general but also folks are a lot more particular about what they spend their hard earned money on. Of course overall awareness of our environment is steadily increasing and the practice of recycling things is gaining a bigger foothold all the time. the old notion of  our throwaway society is being replaced by the idea of sustainability and reuse, of  reclaiming and recycling instead of just blithely tossing things in the garbage to be taken off somewhere.

Along with that growing mindset is the idea of knowing where something comes from, how is it made, and where will it end up when your done with it. Recycling programs all over are gaining in use and popularity which is great.

But folks also want value, they want things that are going to last and hold up. A large portion of our population are known as baby boomers, though they haven’t been babies for about 50 years or more, they none the less continue to have a very very large impact on trends and practices and one of those emerging trends is they do not want to spend time sanding or painting or repairing their outdoor furniture anymore. They want to simply be able to go outside, sit in their favorite chair and enjoy, whether that means reading or listening to 8 tracks (just kidding) or whatever. They do not want to be bothered with upkeep and maintenance.

Oh and one other thing, very important though. They want to be comfortable.

Very important factor this, after all what good is a eco-friendly, recycled, colorful and pretty, virtually indestructible, carefree and maintenance free outdoor chair if it isn’t comfortable to sit in.  Not much I would say.

So back to our folks who might be out looking this year for outdoor furniture. Things are a bit tight economically, you want to get  the most bang for your buck but you definitely do not want to be doing this same shopping trip  again in a few years, you want something that will last, furniture that you can sit in and not work on. Your mindful of the benefits of being eco-friendly after all the earth has a finite supply of resources (see oil )  so while being recycled isn’t likely your number one priority it is on the list.

Bottom line is simple, you or your friends want a good deal, a care free, no maintenance, long lasting, and comfortable outdoor chair. And I know just where you can get that.

Welcome to Green Frog Outdoor Furniture.

Jerry Wilkinson, owner of Green Frog Outdoor Furniture, LLC and Hercules

How To Choose a Color For Your Recycled Plastic Outdoor Furniture

This is one of the biggest questions I run into, right up there with what style is what color? It is a legitimate question to be sure, and with a dozen choices from Poly-Wood alone, it isn’t made any easier. Most people envision their house color or the garden colors or what ever else is in the area they plan on putting their new outdoor furniture. I can tell you one thing, the color is going to last, or as a Rolling Stones song title says, Not Fade Away. Did I date myself there? So the bright Sunset Red or Lemon Yellow or Lime Green is going to be that color for a long long time, unlike most wood furniture that will fade into a dingy gray Poly-Wood is going to stay colorful for years to come.

So while I cannot choose your color, and I can tell you it will stay whatever color you choose I would like to share some of the solutions I have heard for this dilemma. The first one is you don’t have to match the house or anything else. Choose a color that you like simply because you like it. If your house has blue trim and but you like the Sunset Red chairs, it will look fine. The outdoor furniture is an accent and there are no rules.

One solution that I think works well and it is exactly what the couple who were my first customers did, they couldn’t decide on just one color so they bought a chair and table in four different colors and placed them on their front patio. Outdoor furniture should be fun and the Lemon Yellow and Pacific Blue next to the Sunset Red and Lime Green were certainly colorful on their Spanish style adobe home patio with its red tile roof and dark brown wood trim.

It is even possible to mix the colors within the chairs themselves. I have mixed a orange seat and back with a lime green legs and arm rests, and did the exact opposite with lime green seat and back and orange legs and armrests. It is not difficult and certainly offers some interesting combination’s depending on the colors you have.

Adirondack Chairs in Sunset Red, Lime Green and Pacific Blue

Long Island Adirondacks, side tables and ottomans, Lemon Yellow, Tangerine Orange and Aruba

Poly-Wood, Stainless Steel, and Xylan

For those who do not know Poly-Wood is brand name for outdoor furniture that is made using recycled #two plastics like milk cartons, shampoo bottles, some water bottles and a few other types. There are seven classifications for plastics these are number two, number one  is also typically recycled. The higher the classification number the harder it is to recycle.

Some different #2 platics

Technically Poly-Wood is not 100% recycled, sometimes they for whatever reason do not have enough recycled plastic and so they use some virgin stuff, not very often but enough so that it cannot technically be called 100% more like 99.5 or maybe 98%, pretty high in any case.

So as many may know, Poly-Wood or recycled plastic in general is pretty nearly bulletproof in terms of durability and longevity. It doesn’t rot or decay, bugs don’t eat it, it doesn’t crack or splinter, it won’t warp or twist. It is non porous so it is pretty much stain proof, the color is IN the material not on it so there is no chipping or peeling. It has UV stabilizers added so the color is virtually fade proof too. It will fade some, but the amount is so small you really don’t ever notice.  Of course it won’t rust and most chemicals don’t faze it including chlorine, gasoline, salt air and water don’t harm it either.

Now the stainless steel part. I mentioned no rust, true enough the plastic won’t rust, the fasteners the screws and bolts used are made of stainless steel. For the most part stainless steel is pretty tough it doesn’t stain and it rarely succumbs to rust. Salt air however can eat up pretty much anything. Stainless steel in a salt air or water environment could develop some rust.

So the manufacturers at Poly-Wood went one step further. They also coat the stainless steel with Xylan. Now that is a pretty impressive name I think. Xylan, sounds like a mythical superhero here to save the day. Turns out even NASA uses Xylan on the space ships as a super lubricant and protection!

Somewhere in all that Xylan is quietly protecting various nuts and bolts

So that is a brief run down on the different parts that go into Poly-Wood outdoor furniture. the end result is of course furniture you can use year after year, requires little to no maintenance just hose it off to clean and dirt off, it isn’t going to disintegrate before your eyes and all and all it is extremely durable and it is comfortable and it is colorful. And it is made in the USA.

If some evening you hear a noise out or around your patio furniture, it could be the dog or a raccoon, or maybe it’s Xylan taking a break after a busy day fighting rust… or not.

Painted Surface vs. Solid Color In Material

As you likely know our outdoor furniture is made of recycled plastics, and that the color and there are up to  twelve available in Poly-Wood depending on what Collection you choose, is mixed right into the material. I tell folks this and sometimes a light goes on and other times folks don’t quite get a concept of what that means. Most outdoor furniture be it wood, or cast iron, or strap and aluminum, most of this stuff is painted, and the better stuff is powder coat painted. Powder coat paint means basically there is an electrical current that really bonds the paint to the surface and it gives a very nice smooth finish. No doubt about it this type of painting is pretty durable but doesn’t work on wood. Any paint though is a surface application, and a surface no matter what it is, is subject to dings and nicks and unintended collisions, which makes me think of my youngest daughter and cars but that is a different story.  Naturally the dings nicks and unintended encounters cause  surface damage and usually the paint is the first to go. Paint on wood can also blister, it cracks with the natural expansion and contraction of wood, and it just gets old and wears out, reminds me of cars I have given to my youngest daughter.

So here is the big deal of all this, with the color in the material it does not chip off, it does not crack, it won’t peel, and  fading is minimal especially since our Poly-Wood furniture, which is made in the USA by the way, has UV stabilizers added into the mix. I haven’t yet seen the process but i imagine a big pot full of a semi liquid material the molten plastic and some folks in white coats are adding color, just pouring it right into the big pot and then adding some UV stabilizers, pouring those in the pot too and then mixing it all up to an even consistency.

Likely the process is a bit more technical than that but that’s the picture I have in my mind. Kinda like colored concrete, the color is all through the concrete, or even the color of clothes, same thing the color is in the material.

South Beach Dining chairs in Vibrant colors

Great! so what’s the big deal about that, well the big deal is the surface of our outdoor furniture NEVER needs to be painted. It NEVER needs to be sanded because of chipping or peeling or for that matter for cracking, splitting, splintering, or shrinking.

There may be a reason to sand your Poly-Wood   furniture. I have heard this first hand, true story. A couple came into my store and they were very excited to have found a Poly-Wood dealer in the North San Francisco Bay Area. They had evidently purchased some in Arizona I believe, about 10 years ago and loved it. However- here it comes- somewhere along the line their dog, and I just assume it was a very large breed, decided that chewing on the corner of one of the armrests was a good idea. So he did. And that left definite evidence that he was there. The  color did indeed go all through the material however the new teeth marks made it unsightly and a bit rough around the edges to grasp. The solution was to put a belt sander to the effected area and smooth it out. They said except for a slight change in the contour  of the armrest due to sanding everything was fine, I didn’t ask anymore about the dog they seemed like very nice people so I’m sure the dog is fine.

Patterns are Ok, I prefer stripes though

So the point I wish to leave you with is simply this, recycled plastic is good for the environment the plastic is already here the solution is to reuse it. Color that is in the material is infinitely better than color that is on the material. Don’t give your youngest daughter a new car and finally, dogs are indeed man’s best friend.

Ides of March, March Madness, and Outdoor Furniture

South Beach Chaise, with custom Sunbrella cushions

The Ides of March has come and gone and now the modern-day March Madness is upon us once again. I bet more of you know what March Madness is than know what the ides of March are or were. I confess, I didn’t really know what ides meant, I do remember the ides of March in Shakespeare’s Julius Cesar, as in “beware the ides of March.” That was when JC was done in by his supposed buds, et tu Brute, as in you too Brutus? The ides refers to when a full moon occurred in each month, in March it is mid month, there is also an ides of June and ides of July, but they never got  much ink, even less nowadays. That’s what happens when a big name mentions you. If Oprah were to mention Green Frog Outdoor Furniture, LLC, I’d be swamped, with or with out the LLC in fact.

Of course the Modern day March Madness refers to the annual college basketball national championship tournament. Sixty-five teams start out, and one of them ends up national champion. Even folks who don’t much follow college hoops enjoy this, I can attest to that personally. Heck, even the President has entered a pool and made his picks, although no wager was mentioned usually these pools, even the most innocent, offer a prize of some sort to the lucky person who picked the most winners and serious pools offer some serious rewards for sure.

And what the bleep does this have to do with outdoor furniture? Both references are to dates to a time line, Ides of March and March Madness, Easter is on the horizon and the indirect point is the time for outdoor furniture is upon us. Does furniture madness work…. no, let me work on this one a bit.

Long Island chaise in Pacific Blue

Things change, now there is  outdoor furniture that can be left out all year round, no need to protect them from winter weather. In a lot of areas, especially on the West coast, it is entirely possible to sit outside in November or December, probably enjoying the stars by a fire pit.No, not the Oprah kind of stars more like the Big Dipper kind, of course there are now outdoor TV’s so maybe you watch Oprah on TV outdoors…either way.

In addition to not having to move furniture in and out of storage, and being able to use it pretty much year round, since it is made of recycled plastics it is will never need any paint or sanding and it has none of the fatal  flaws of other outdoor furniture materials, it is pretty much indestructible. This is the recycled part, if the plastic used to make our outdoor furniture went  right into a landfill, which is where it was headed, it would sit undecomposed for something like 500 to 1000 or more years. Even then it would only break up into smaller bits of plastic the components do not break down to a natural element. Once it is plastic it stays plastic the best we can do is to keep reusing it.

Spring is for Outdoors, As In Furniture

The days are getting longer and it seems like the rain here in Northern California is tapering off, a little bit at least. Longer days and more sunshine I am sure is on the way, already daffodils are popping up and baseball is in the news again.

Now some folks will be looking over their old wooden outdoor chairs, did they make it through one more season, do they need sanding or fixing or painting or staining? Or what about those strap and aluminum chairs that looked so great just two summers ago when it was 95 degrees out and you just had to have them! they probably aren’t looking so good now, the aluminum is dull and shows signs of rust and the straps are, well if uncle Bubba doesn’t sit in this one it might be okay….

That’s when you remember, the outdoor home show back in May last year and the guy was displaying these great looking Adirondack chairs that were made of recycled plastic, stuff from milk cartons and shampoo bottles and some other plastic stuff he mentioned. He said they cleaned it, ground it up into little bits, added color and UV stabilizers and extruded it, not sure what extrude means but he said the stuff  comes out like lumber and then it is cut and shaped  like wood. Except this stuff doesn’t lose it ‘s color and it won’t rot or split or splinter, can’t crack and won’t grow mold or support a large family of termites. You liked the colors some were earth tone like green and Cedar and like that and some were real bright and lively like  Lime and Tangerine and a really nice yellow, Lemon I think it was called.

Is this picture missing you?

This guy said you could leave them outside all year-round, and come spring just hose them off and they are ready to go. Now that’s what I like, plus he said they were made in the USA and I like that too. Geez, the more I think of it the more it makes great sense. Buy the furniture once, put it out in the yard  and enjoy it during the seasons, or here in California just about anytime of the year, no worry about storing it and no need for fixing or painting or any of that stuff- plus it lasts for almost ever!

That’s when a light bulb goes on and you head back inside, I know I kept his card, what was the name of that place again…green… green frog…. Green Frog Outdoor Furniture!  That’s it and he is on the web too as I remember, www.greenfrogoutdoorfurniture.com