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Materials / Plastic film

Plastic film

Trex confirmedShare used open

Bags and bubble wrap are collected on their own and go to Trex for decking, per the manager. How much of it makes it into a board is unknown.

Where it goes

Bin
Plastic bags and bubble wrap, kept separate from bottles.
Town data
Why separate
Film jams sorting machines, which is why it contaminates curbside plastic everywhere else.
Background
Trex
The manager confirms the film goes to Trex. NHDES says the same of film collected statewide: it's sold to composite lumber makers.
Manager, in person
Decking
Trex alone reclaims more than 300 million pounds of polyethylene film a year.
State data

Solid border: confirmed. Dashed: likely. Dotted: open.

The numbers

Tons, 2023
No film line on the town's revenue sheet Town data
Bench math
NexTrex gives a community group a composite bench for 500 to 1,000 pounds of clean film. State data
Route
Straight to Trex, per the manager. Trex's NexTrex program equips municipal partners with a baler, picks up 20 to 40 bales at a time, and pays a rebate. State data
Share that becomes product
Unknown Inference

What the records show

The center collects plastic bags and bubble wrap as a separate stream. The manager confirmed in September 2026 that it goes to Trex. That fits the market: there is essentially one end use for post-consumer film, composite lumber. NHDES states that film collected in the state is sold to composite lumber makers, and Trex alone reclaims more than 300 million pounds of polyethylene film a year for decking.

The same market runs a community program, NexTrex Bags to Benches: a group that collects 500 to 1,000 pounds of clean film earns a Trex bench. It's active nearby. The Ten Towns group in Harrisville promotes it, and the Concord Hannaford received a bench in 2023. Lions Clubs run drives elsewhere. In Peterborough the Lions Club ran a Bags to Benches drive until about 2025, per the center manager, and stopped when Trex changed the program from a guaranteed bench to a lottery.

Film is the reason curbside plastic gets contaminated: it jams sorting machines. Collecting it separately, as the center does, is exactly the right move.

The open question is yield. Nothing public says what share of the film collected here actually ends up in a board.

Still open

Tracked on the open questions page.

Sources

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