Texas firm acquires ReWall

Houston-based Continuus Material Recovery LLC (CMR) has acquired the manufacturing assets of Des Moines, Iowa-based based ReWall Co. CMR says the move is designed to “create an entirely new value network in construction building materials, along with ushering in a new era for recycling.”

ReWall uses postconsumer and postindustrial mixed paper and plastic scrap in what it calls a proprietary process to convert it into 4-foot-by-8-foot building material boards that can be used to clad exterior walls and commercial roofs.

CEO Carl Rush told Recycling Today the company’s Everboard, the name it is using for its new product, performs “as well [as] or better than the materials that are available today in the marketplace.” 

The company says that with China “closing its doors to United States recyclables, tens of thousands of tons of paper and plastic no longer have a clear path to reuse and are being sent to landfills. The ReWall process can address that problem and supply what CMR says is “rising consumer demand for durable sustainable building materials and corporate zero waste goals.” 

“Throughout its history, ReWall has been a terrific example of innovative entrepreneurial spirit, and we are grateful to bring [its] energy and drive into the Continuus team," says Rush. “With this acquisition, we can accelerate waste reduction opportunities through low-cost, easily implementable solutions and generate a universal sustainable raw material for a multitude of new products.”

As the Everboard technology was coming out of the lab, Rush says China began implementing its new scrap import contamination standards. Rush says his company’s technology was “at the right place at the right time” because

 recyclables that do not meet China’s contamination standards can be diverted to CMR and used for its products. He says, “The less-than-desirable plastics and the less-than-desirable papers are just fine for our process.”

Rush says investing to boost ReWall’s capacity is in the works. “Design and engineering are underway for an even larger facility where we will be producing hundreds of millions of board feet of building materials, and then we’ll move into other areas. In the end, millions of tons of waste won’t end up in landfills.”

In its news release announcing the acquisition, CMR says the new product will be “a welcome opportunity for companies committed to zero waste goals.” By using Continuus roof cover boards for large commercial roof projects, companies can qualify for waste diversion volumes as an offset toward their zero-waste reporting, says the firm.

Rush also says the Everboard is durable, strong and unique: “It’s not a step down using recycled materials—it’s actually a better-performing product.”

“When I was running the recycling program for the state of California, we really didn’t have large enough markets for recycled material,” says Bridgett Luther, former president of the Cradle to Cradle Products Innovation Institute. “Continuus has proven they can take mixed paper and plastics and use them to make products and create jobs here in the United States. That’s what recycling is really all about—closing the loop. Not just collecting the materials but turning them into products that can be used over and over.”

“I think we’ve got to crawl before we run, and the ReWall acquisition gives us the opportunity to start producing materials,” Rush says.“Value [is] created from this process—from this recovery and processing of these boards. There is value in those streams and we’re excited about the opportunity.”

CMR describes itself as a waste-to-resources company that operates the largest waste separation facility in the country. It says its mission is to capture and extract components that are currently discarded in waste streams and instead use them to manufacture new products.