Petaluma, Calif., February 22, 2013 – Advanced Flexible Materials (AFM) and Trex Company continue to expand their successful free Heatsheets® Blankets to Boards™ recycling program thanks to participation from the Livestrong Austin Marathon and Half Marathon which was held on February 17, 2013.

A continuously growing trend in the running community is the commitment to environmental and social responsibility; a goal that both events and participants alike are making a reality. The Livestrong Austin Marathon and Half Marathon is no exception.

At last weekend’s event, approximately 1,000 Heatsheets® (140 lbs. of LDPE – low density polyethylene) were collected and taken to a local H-E-B grocery store, a longtime partner with the event, which will be consolidated with recycled grocery bags, to be recycled and repurposed through Trex for transformation into durable and beautiful wood-alternative decking and railing products.

“The proper disposal of Heatsheets® has always been a difficult issue for our sustainability program, until we were introduced to the Blankets to Boards program. While they’re very light in weight, they consume a lot of volume once used, and the thought of all that in landfills has always bothered us,” said Rob Hill, Sustainability Coordinator for the Livestrong Marathon and Half Marathon.

Rob went on to say, “Instituting the collection of the Heatsheets® also helped further one of the goals of our sustainability program – to encourage our runners, volunteers, and staff to think about the materials they use, and how they can be disposed of in a way that both closes the waste cycle and reduces the need to introduce new materials to manufacturing.”

Stephanie Deigan, president of Heatsheets® event products reports, “It’s refreshing to see that more and more events are making a concerted effort to become more environmentally conscious. Through our Blankets to Boards program, Heatsheets® that are made in the U.S. actually stay here for recycling rather than being shipped somewhere overseas or ending up in a landfill. We are thrilled at the recycling efforts set forth by the Livestrong Austin Marathon and Half Marathon and hope to see an even greater participation with events going forward, as sustainability and green certification becomes increasingly more important.”

Launched in February 2011, Blankets to Boards represents a major improvement in the Heatsheets® recycling process. AFM, which provides reflective insulation technologies for an extensive range of uses, allied with Trex to accept recyclable Heatsheets® directly into its supply chain, primarily through collection at local grocery and department stores. As the nation’s largest manufacturer of wood-alternative decking and railing products, Trex collects, salvages and repurposes plastic – along with wood scrap and sawdust – and turns it all into low-maintenance outdoor living products that stand up to the test of time.