We say our composite is made from 87% recycled material often enough that it risks becoming background noise. It shouldn’t. It’s one of the more specific, checkable claims in the building products industry, and it’s worth unpacking what’s actually in the mix and why it changes how the product behaves, not just where it comes from.
What’s actually in the board
Sustainable composite timber like PermaTimber combines reclaimed hardwood fibre with high-quality HDPE, the same plastic used in things like milk bottles and pipe systems, diverted from the waste stream rather than manufactured fresh for the purpose. The two materials are blended into a uniform composition through the entire board, not a recycled core with a fresh-material coating on top. That distinction matters more than it sounds: a coated product can delaminate or wear through to a different-looking material underneath. A uniform composite can be sanded, cut or scratched and it still looks and performs the same all the way through.
Recycled doesn’t mean lower performance
The instinct with recycled composite decking is often to assume a trade-off: better for the environment, worse for durability. That’s not how this works. PermaTimber composite doesn’t absorb water, which is what causes timber to swell, warp and eventually rot. It won’t rust, unlike steel fixings and frames in the same environment. And because there’s no natural grain running through it, it doesn’t split or crack the way solid timber does at fixing points or joints. The recycled content isn’t a compromise bolted onto a timber-look product, it’s the reason the product outperforms timber in most of the situations people actually use it.
FSC certified composite and where the timber fibre comes from
The non-recycled portion of PermaTimber composite is FSC certified composite, holding FSC 100%, FSC Mix and FSC Recycled status depending on the specific product line. That certification traces the timber fibre back through the supply chain, so a specifier or a genuinely curious customer can confirm it isn’t coming from an unmanaged or illegally logged source. If you’re specifying for a commercial project with a sustainability reporting requirement, this is the documentation your sustainability consultant will actually ask for, not just a general recycled content claim.
PVC’s own recycling story
Our skirting, quad and DAR trim range is a different material, PVC composite, and it has its own sustainability case that’s less commonly told. PVC is recycled at scale, with millions of tonnes processed annually worldwide, and testing shows it can go through up to seven recycling cycles without losing its mechanical properties. Combined with a service life that can run into decades, that means far less material moving through landfill over a building’s lifetime compared to a product that needs periodic replacement.
Sanding, not replacing
One practical side-effect of the uniform composition rarely gets mentioned alongside the sustainability figures, but it’s directly connected to them. Because there’s no coating layer to wear through, a scratch or surface mark in a board can be sanded back rather than requiring the whole board to be pulled and replaced. That’s a small thing on a single deck board, but at the scale of a commercial project or a long run of cladding, it’s the difference between a maintenance visit and a re-order, and it’s the same recycled-content composition doing double duty as both an environmental story and a practical one.
Why this ends up mattering practically
Beyond the environmental case, sustainability credentials increasingly show up in practical requirements: green building ratings, government procurement conditions, and corporate sustainability reporting on commercial projects. If your project needs to document recycled content, FSC chain of custody, or end-of-life recyclability as part of a broader sustainability case, we can supply the relevant material specifications directly.
Ask us for the numbers
If you need specific recycled content percentages, FSC certification documents, or material composition data for a project, get in touch with the product and the reporting requirement, and we’ll send through what your project needs.