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BUILDING GREEN CertainTeed Partners with Michigan Distributor to Expand Vinyl Siding Recycling Program Through a strong commitment to environ- mental responsibility, CertainTeed Corporation and Eikenhout, Inc. have partnered to expand vinyl siding recycling efforts at each of theMichi- gan distributor's seven locations. In conjunction with a regional recycler, the new program offers contractors easy, environmentally friendly op- tions for disposal of vinyl siding. Each location now features a large recycling container, and for large construction projects, job-site containers are available upon request at no cost to contrac- tors. "Through our partnerships with building prod- uct distributors, we are taking back and recycling as much vinyl as possible, ultimately diverting these materials from being landfilled," says Brian Kirn, manager of productmarketing for the Cer- tainTeed Siding Products Group. "We are con- tributing to a greener tomorrow and fulfilling our commitment of reducing environmental impact over the entire life cycle of our siding products." Eikenhout has been recycling vinyl siding since 1996 at their corporate headquarters in Grand Rapids. However, management wanted to broaden the program. By partnering with Cer- tainTeed, they were able to expand their recy- cling capacity to all company locations, including Lansing,Mt. Pleasant,Holland, Traverse City, Saginaw and Petosky. Each recycling partnership forged by CertainTeed meets stringent quality guidelines. Recycled materials, including scraps from job sites, vinyl siding distributors and other post consumer sources, are integrated into the manufacturing process and verified by a third party auditor on a quarterly basis. "CertainTeed provides everything it can to promote a greener vinyl industry, and it is our mutual goal to collect all the vinyl siding waste rather than have it go to a landfill," says Aaron Sprague, director of marketing for Eikenhout. "Now, anymoney garnered fromrecycling will go towards promoting the recycling program to our customers." Eikenhout joins CertainTeed's network of more than 200 vinyl siding recycling centers throughout the United States. Additionally, CertainTeed has streamlined its operations to re- duce carbon emissions and reprocess all vinyl scrap, resulting in near-zero waste manufactur- ing facilities. The majority of the company's product lines contain recycled content. In fact, CertainTeed® CedarBoards™ Double 6-inch Clapboard Insulated Vinyl Siding contains the highest recycled content of any vinyl siding prod- uct on the market today. The company actively pursues strategies to re- duce environmental impact and is the first siding manufacturer to issue and publish third-party validated life cycle assessments (LCA) for its vinyl and fiber cement siding product lines. The LCA carefully examines all environmental im- pacts—fromrawmaterials andmanufacturing, to transportation and use, to disposal and/or recy- cling—gaining an accurate view of true product sustainability. As a result, CertainTeed is the only siding manufacturer to qualify for double credits according to the LEED product trans- parency credit. For more information, visit www.certain- teed.com/freedomofchoice. No. 15 on Get It Quick Page AUGUST 2012 25 THE JOURNAL