VAST Enterprises announced that VAST Composite Pavers installed through July 2011 have used a cumulative total of more than five million pounds of recycled rubber and plastics. The material came from a total of 285,000 scrap tires and 8.5 million plastic containers in the United States.

The embodied carbon footprint of VAST Composite Pavers is just four percent of the product average for concrete pavers. Thus, installing VAST pavers instead of concrete pavers for hardscaping and landscaping has prevented 22 million pounds of CO2 emissions. Using VAST has also saved 68 billion BTUs of energy.    

“Engineering a composite material with up to 95 percent post-consumer recycled content was the first step,” said Troy Achterkirch, vice president, operations and engineering, VAST Enterprises, LLC. “Our materials science breakthrough was developing such a rubber-plastics composite with the performance characteristics to replace clay brick and molded concrete pavers. For hardscape and landscape projects, VAST Composite Pavers offer visual appeal, design flexibility, strength, and durability.”

“VAST Composite Pavers are the greenest paving material ever, and they can contribute to green building projects earning more LEED® credits than any other paver,” said Andy Vander Woude, LEED AP, chief executive officer, VAST Enterprises, LLC. “Even better, we engineer our composite masonry products to be not just green but much more than green. We design and manufacture our products to be superior to traditional paving materials.”  

Products manufactured in VAST’s composite material are one-third the weight of concrete.