What the lumber is actually made of
blog

What the lumber is actually made of

Our recycled plastic lumber is 100% waste plastic, roughly half post-consumer and half post-industrial. Here is what each half is, why the split matters, and the one number a LEED project will ask for that we should be ready to give.

Wishbone Site Furnishings
·September 9, 2026·2 min read
100%
co-mingled waste plastics, no virgin resin
~50 / 50post-consumer to post-industrial
11,040benches shipped in it since 2018

Post-consumer plastic is the stuff that went through a household: the containers, the film, the packaging that ends up in a blue bin. Post-industrial plastic never reached a consumer. It is the offcut, the reject, the purge from a moulding line that would otherwise be scrapped. Both are waste. Neither is virgin resin. The distinction matters because procurement policies and green building standards treat them differently, and post-consumer is the one they weight more heavily.

Why co-mingled, and why it is a feature

Co-mingled means the feedstock is mixed plastics rather than one sorted grade. That is harder to process and it is exactly the stream that has the fewest other uses. A clean, sorted bale of one polymer has a market. A mixed stream mostly does not, and a product that can absorb it is diverting plastic that would otherwise have nowhere to go.

The number a LEED project needs

The LEED v4.1 sourcing credit accepts recycled content claims only when they conform to ISO 14021, and it says plainly that a figure given as a range is not acceptable. "Approximately fifty percent" is a range. A project team wanting our furniture to count toward a credit needs a single, substantiated post-consumer percentage. That is not a criticism of the product. It is a document we should have, and this article is the reason to produce it.

From the archive

On site

Wishbone ft Wheelchair Accessible Rutherford Wide Body Memorial Bench in Smithers BC
Wishbone ft Wheelchair Accessible Rutherford Wide Body Memorial Bench in Smithers BC1 / 6
Wishbone Rutherford Bench on Perma pad in West Kelowna BC
Wishbone Rutherford Bench on Perma pad in West Kelowna BC2 / 6
WishboneRutherfordMemorialBenchinKelownaBC tap658
WishboneRutherfordMemorialBenchinKelownaBC tap6583 / 6
Wishbone Rutherford Bench Green Lumber Textured Black Frame on the Salmon Trail in Lumby BC Front View
Wishbone Rutherford Bench Green Lumber Textured Black Frame on the Salmon Trail in Lumby BC Front View4 / 6
Wishbone Rutherford Wide Body Benches at Alexis Park in Vernon BC
Wishbone Rutherford Wide Body Benches at Alexis Park in Vernon BC5 / 6
Wishbone Rutherford Memorial Bench in Kelowna BC
Wishbone Rutherford Memorial Bench in Kelowna BC6 / 6
Configure it live

Rutherford Bench 5ft

Explore: Materials · Recycled Plastic · Sustainable · Resources

The composition figures are the company's own statements on the materials page. LEED requirement from the USGBC v4.1 product compliance checklists.

Share
Newsletter

New work, a few times a year

Products, installations and stories like this one, straight to your inbox. No noise, and you can unsubscribe anytime.

Keep reading