There’s something unique about the Revinylize Recycling Collaborative’s recent market introduction in New Orleans last October (2025). Following a busy run of launches in Louisville, Nashville, St. Louis and Corsicana, Texas, New Orleans becomes the fifth metro area in less than a year to hoist the Revinylize flag.
In addition to being the latest stake in the ground from Revinylize, the Big Easy launch is unique from the other cities for two reasons: 1) There were no partners from the local market, except for one; 2) The local nonprofit charity partner has a strong commitment to utilizing sustainable materials for homebuilding/renovation projects.
Read this short case study to get an inside look at this successful project, from start to finish.
Revinylize New Orleans Project Goal
Establish an important building block for the Revinylize mission to become a national recycling collaborative for post-consumer rigid vinyl in a city that has a “robust presence” of vinyl siding and in a region (Southern Louisiana) where an estimated 30-50% of homes utilized vinyl siding in their construction.
Partners
The Revinylize New Orleans project was made possible thanks to the following players:
- Polymeric Exterior Products Association (PEPA) – founded Revinylize in 2023 after years of market research and a pilot project in Northeast Ohio to establish that a national recycling model for vinyl siding was scalable.
- JP Industrial – a GreenCircle-verified recycler and Revinylize sponsor, processed the post- consumer vinyl siding.
- Direct Polymers, a Brave Company – a GreenCircle-verified recycler and Revinylize sponsor, collected the post-consumer siding for JP Industrial to recycle.
- CertainTeed – a PEPA member and Revinylize member, manufactured and donated the new vinyl siding for the renovation project. The specific product is a beautiful Wedgewood blue siding with tremendous curb appeal.
- Progressive Foam – a PEPA member specializing in sustainable insulation technologies, provided the foam installed with the new vinyl siding.
- The Vinyl Institute – an industry leader in advancing vinyl siding and PVC sustainability. Its Vinyl Sustainability Council is a Revinylize sponsor and provided onsite promotional support and consultation.
- New Orleans Area Habitat for Humanity – a chapter of the internationally renowned nonprofit homebuilder whose mission is to responsibly build communities where families can thrive in homes they can afford. They had three local homes in their inventory that required renovation. The nonprofit also served as a central collection site for the post-consumer vinyl siding for all three home projects.
New Orleans Launch Benefits
Borrowing a page from the Revinylize Louisville launch playbook last year, planning a project in New Orleans last fall presented an ideal promotional opportunity to promote the recycling initiative in advance of the Vinyl Sustainability Summit (also in NOLA) in December 2025. Summit attendees were treated to a special presentation of the project, connected with key project participants and visited the project sites.
The New Orleans Launch included renovating three homes in three different neighborhoods, raising local awareness and increasing recycling impact.
- Local contractor RCI & Associates was hired to do the residing for all three sites.
“We have worked with Habitat for over 6 years, so being involved in a project like this was awesome to see,” said Matthew Daigle, RCI’s owner. “I appreciate the investments from these groups to make this possible. And to have manufacturers onsite, especially Rob [Balfanz) from Progressive Foam, who was hands-on and even climbed the ladder with us, is a rare opportunity. Everyone involved was great to work with. We were so glad to be a part of the Revinylize project … all the local distributors need to know about Revinylize.”
- New Orleans Area Habitat for Humanity not only builds affordable homes, but also repairs them. Weatherization and sustainability are big priorities. On previous projects, they used denim insulation from recycled blue jeans. When approached about partnering with Revinylize, New Orleans Area Habitat for Humanity Executive Director Marguerite Oestreicher was thrilled.
“We’ve been operating for more than 40 years, and we’ve built north of 800 homes in this community, so lots of people who’ve owned their homes for a long time needed weatherization. Having this opportunity to get new vinyl was tremendous for them.”
- A multifaceted promotional video hosted and produced by Recycled by Design’s Tim Ridderbos in cooperation with Brave Media enabled greater expansion of the Revinylize message, with a focus on best practices. Key examples included:
-
- How the contractor team removed nails and other excess materials from the post-consumer vinyl to prevent contamination during the recycling process.
- CertainTeed staff promoted how they drive the end users to be a part of the recycling process, educating contractors and homeowners that they can recycle their vinyl siding at the end of its performance life.
- Progressive Foam showed how its continuous insulation product maximizes energy efficiency and is 100% recyclable, like vinyl siding.
- Brave (Direct Polymers) articulated their vision for “bringing people together to fix broken systems by bridging the layers of the supply chain system.” For them, New Orleans represents a terrific opportunity for early adopters to disrupt the market.
Impact and Potential
Whereas in previous launches in cities with local collection sites, distributors and other value chain players in place, the Revinylize launch in New Orleans represented a true market disruption.
What made this effort even more special was the presence of key industry players on the project sites advocating for all that is possible. These partners included:
- Adam Hill, CEO of Denver-based Brave and Direct Polymers
- Jay Thomas, Executive Director of the Vinyl Sustainability Council in Washington, DC
- Nick Puckett, Director of Operations, JPI Coastal
- Matt Reese, Circular Economy Program Manager – Siding Products Manager, CertainTeed in Philadelphia
- Rob Balfanz, Vice President, Siding, Home Improvement, Workforce Development, Progressive Foam Technologies
Along with Matt Dobson, PEPA Senior Vice President, and Alex Fernandez, PEPA Vice President of Government Affairs and Advocacy, having this elite group of influencers at one Revinylize project is a telling sign of the promising future of this vinyl siding recycling mission. They are, after all, the kind of influencers that can decide where Revinylize will expand to in the future. Capturing their involvement and effectively communicating it to target audiences could spur both local participation in New Orleans and engagement with other cities, especially since New England is scheduled to be the next Revinylize territory this spring.
Promoting vinyl siding recycling had an even greater societal impact for the local homeowners, as the new vinyl siding will help preserve generational wealth, according to the New Orleans Area Habitat for Humanity’s Home Repair Coordinator, Rich Alves. “It enriches their lives and the lives of others in their community.”
The Bottom Line
With so many positive stories and benefits related to the Revinylize New Orleans launch, the buzz from this ambitious project could certainly be an impetus for further engagement and local participation.
According to PEPA’s Matt Dobson, it should make perfect business sense for everyone in every community to reclaim vinyl siding from landfills and recycle it to create beautiful new products for more sustainable homes and communities.
“There is an estimated 300 million pounds annually of post-consumer vinyl siding available for recycling. Having a Revinylize Recycling Collaborative in more communities means a healthier world with more prosperous, circular economies. Sounds like a winning formula to me.”
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________
Don Browne is a writer, entrepreneur and local legislator who believes that the power of words can change the world. He provides unique writing services for clients in the construction, health care, IT and hospitality sectors. He has a passion for small business and start-ups, as well as writing about Irish history, family and corporate biographies. As a homeowner and father of four who is passionate about community development, Don looks forward to writing more about the exciting possibilities of creating traditional neighborhoods and more sustainable communities using modern materials.