Mess With Texas

We had a full day driving from Tennessee to western Texas and the heat only got worse. So when we arrived in Marshall to film another factory sequence, we knew we’d be in for a long day.



Tie-Tek is a recycling company that truly recycles. They take consumer and industrial plastic waste and turn it into railroad ties.



Why railroad ties?



Well, it seems the USA alone replaces more than 12 million wooden railroad ties every year. What’s worse, the wood is often treated with creosote, a nasty chemical preservative that leeches into the environment.



Tie-Tek’s plastic alternative can last longer and is apparently benign to the environment. The uniform dimensions of a rail-tie also make it a one-mould process and thus commercially viable.



Steve showed us around the plant where they take the waste plastic, mulch it up, heat the mixture, press it into a mould, cool it off in a futuristic bath and stack them for shipping.



Severely malnourished and dehydrated, Cryptic Moth sped off to Houston to meet Henry, Tie-Tek’s president. As luck would have it, a massive thunderstorm erupted just as we entered the city limits. Within minutes Henry calls us to say his plant – and the road surrounding the plant – is flooding. (Click link below for an over-dramatized video enactment)

Rain%20in%20Houston.wmv

We headed for higher ground.



The next morning, we met Henry in a temporary trailer next to his new processing facility. Henry is a tall, lean man who wears glasses. He keeps his long hair pulled back in a pony tail and speaks with conviction. We interview Henry in front of his raw material depot.



After working for many years as a chemical engineer, Henry wanted to build a profitable business that could serve a function and be beneficial to the environment, in that order. His business has since grown exponentially, selling his ties around the world. Henry boasts his company has saved millions of trees from ending up as wooden rectangles and how his product is infinitely recyclable. That's because a retiring Tie-Tek can simply be put back into the process to be born anew.



We thanked Henry for his time and once again, hauled-butt to the next shoot.



The Busbees live on a remote farm 2 hours north of Houston. Dr. Dave is a geneticist and toxicologist studying the health effects of plasticizers. Plasticizers are basically the additives that make plastic soft and flexible and are found in pretty much everything – from our food packaging to our clothes to our car’s interior. Dr. Dave isolates these plasticizers – some called pthalates – and exposes them to different genes.



And he has been shocked by what he’s found. Every chemical has altered gene expressions vital for human development – from the brain to reproductive organs. So what does this mean? No one knows. Dr. Dave is one of a few studying these chemicals that are already commonly found in waterways and are prevalent in most of our bodies – including pregnant women. More research is definitely needed but Dr. Dave isn’t hopeful.



It was a long, sobering interview. To our delight, our guests treated the Cryptic Moth team to a home-cooked meal that would bring tears to the eyes of any worn-out traveler. Thank you, thank you, thank you for the southern hospitality.



They even invited us to stay the night but we had to be on the West Coast in a few days and some 1200 miles of desert lay in our way.



Out.

I+G

A Georgia Peach

From Tennessee, Cryptic Moth drove south to La Grange, Georgia. We were there to film Interface - the world’s largest commercial carpeting company. If you’ve been inside an airport or office building, chances are you’ve walked on their product.



Why we’re we there?

From the nylon yarn to glues and the vinyl backing, most of it is plastic. What’s bad, a lot of carpet ends up in landfill.



But Interface isn’t your run-of-the-mill carpet company. Highlighted on Discovery and the doc “The Corporation” Interface is a world leader in sustainable business.

What does that mean?

Well, for starters, Interface doesn’t sell carpet rolls. They sell modular tiles. That means one can replace high traffic zones or coffee spills without throwing the whole carpet away. They use recycled, bio-based and non-toxic materials. And that’s just a few examples.



Thanks to a heads-up from Chris T. (thegeographyofhope.com), we were there to see a new technology called Cool Blue.



Stuart, Interface’s VP Sustainable Development, showed us the process. It starts by grinding up old carpeting into plastic pellets.



The pellets are then melted into backing for new carpets. This is cradle to cradle stuff! Interface has already recovered over 20 million tonnes of carpet. They even foresee mining landfills for raw materials.



Speaking of utilizing landfill, the Cool Blue process (among others) is powered by methane captured from the local dump. As we have seen, recycling technologies are energy hogs and this is a great solution.



Dave, the VP of Engineering, drove us out to the landfill to see it for ourselves.



This small system captures the methane and pumps it 10 miles to the factory.



But it is city owned and serves other businesses, making the system a money maker for the community. Dave was the brainchild.



For the interview, we followed him single file through the grass to the top of the old landfill.



He directed us to follow single-file as Tennessee is home to Copperheads and other poisonous – or just plain creepy – critters.



Dave – like everyone at Interface – spoke passionately about how environmental and social consideration, synergized with business, can indeed make money. And they know they’re not perfect. The ultimate goal is to leave no environmental footprint in the production of their products by 2020.



Cryptic Moth wishes them luck.

Many thanks go out to our tour guides and to David G. for setting it all up. And thanks to Interface for showing the way.



We finished off yet another long, hot day by treating ourselves to an upscale dinner at The Basil Leaf in downtown La Grange – a wonderful alternative to the fast food options available until now. Tomorrow we’re Texas-bound.

Out.

G+I