According to the most recent statistics from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the United States generated more than 290 million tons of municipal solid waste—more commonly known as trash or garbage—in 2018, or 4.9 pounds per person per day.
Of that total, more
than 146 million tons of trash was landfilled. Landfilled trash includes such things
as food, paper, plastic and rubber, which can release toxic substances into the
environment as they decompose, polluting the air we breathe, the water we drink
and the soil in which we grow.
As we celebrate Earth Day on April 22, Swan–The Watering Company also has
something to celebrate. For more than 25 years, we’ve been helping to preserve the
environment, using recycled materials in our garden hoses that re-purpose more
than 60 million pounds of plastic, rubber and other potential garbage each year,
keeping it from landfills.
In fact, 90 percent of the
garden hoses Swan manufactures each year utilize recycled materials. That’s
equivalent to more than 100,000 miles of garden hose—enough to wrap around the
Earth more than 4.5 times! To break it down even further, each of our PVC and
rubber hoses contain 90 percent recycled materials, while our soaker hoses
contain 65 percent. That makes us the proud leader in our industry for how
extensively we use recycled materials in our products.
Swan’s PVC garden hoses,
for example, include about 250 different hoses made with recycled materials.
You can find many of them by clicking here. These hoses include a thick
core layer of recycled PVC composed mainly of recycled plastic wire coating and pool
liners, wrapped with another layer of recycled materials. These recycled layers
are then sandwiched between two layers of virgin material: one forms the inner
water barrier to protect the water from coming into contact with the recycled
materials. The other forms the outer jacket to protect the user’s hands from
the same. This is illustrated nicely in the following diagram:
We source the raw materials from various suppliers nationwide, but mainly from those close to Swan's plant locations in Texas and Nevada. The raw materials typically go through a shredding process and are then separated to isolate the materials we're interested in. These materials are then blended and pelletized to homogenize the mixture. The result is a high-quality recycled material, equal in terms of performance to non-recycled hoses.
Swan’s rubber hoses,
meanwhile, contain 90 percent recycled materials such as recycled tires, while our
popular soaker hose line found here contains 65 percent. We
also recycle what we call our “scrap hoses” that are made with manufacturing defects
during our production process.
Swan’s Viper hose, hot
water rubber hoses and Element line, in contrast, do not contain recycled
materials. Our Element hoses, for instance, found here can only use virgin material
because they’re built to be drinking-water-safe, and thus free from lead, zinc
and phthalates.
According to Swan Vice President of
Product Development Ben Williams, the use of recycled materials has given the
company a double benefit over the years.
“[Recycled materials] allow us to
manufacture the highest-quality products in the world at prices our consumers
are very happy with, while at the same time allowing us to consume scrap
material that otherwise would have gone into a landfill potentially,” Williams
says.
Just as importantly, the use of
recycled materials maintains Swan’s commitment to making the world better and
more sustainable through the experience, knowledge and creativity that flows
through every hose it makes.
Says Williams, “[Using recycled
materials] supports our corporate mission to be
the leader in innovative and environmentally-friendly watering solution
systems.”
So tell us: What
do you think of Swan’s recycling efforts, and what will you do for Earth Day
2021? The theme this year is “Restore Our Earth.” According to Earthday.org, "climate change and other environmental degradations have broken our natural systems, leading to new and fatal diseases as well as a breakdown of the global economy. But just as climate change and coronavirus painfully remind us of the harm we've caused, Restore Our Earth reminds us of the opportunities that lay ahead."
You can join this year's Earth Day events online here on April 22 as the event goes digital for the second year in a row because of the coronavirus pandemic.
