Due to the rollout of China’s waste import ban, tens of thousands of tons of paper and plastic no longer have a clear path to reuse and are being sent to landfills. By acquiring the manufacturing assets of Des Moines, Iowa-based ReWall Company, Continuus Material Recovery is poised to create an entirely new value network in construction building materials along with ushering in a new era for recycling.

To address the rising consumer demand for durable sustainable building materials and corporate zero waste goals, Continuus is taking post-consumer and post-industrial mixed paper and plastic destined for landfill and manufacturing the materials through a proprietary process into 4-foot-by-8-foot building material boards for exterior wall and commercial roofs.

“Throughout its history, ReWall has been a terrific example of innovative entrepreneurial spirit, and we are grateful to bring their energy and drive into the Continuus team,” said Carl Rush, CEO of Continuus Material Recovery, in a statement. “With this acquisition, we can accelerate waste reduction opportunities through low-cost, easily implementable solutions and generate a universal sustainable raw material for a multitude of new products. Design and engineering is underway for an even larger facility, where we will be producing hundreds of millions of board feet of building materials, and then we’ll move into other areas. In the end, millions of tons of waste won’t end up in landfills.”

This new product will be a welcome opportunity for companies committed to zero waste goals. By using Continuus roof cover boards for their large commercial roof projects, companies will qualify for waste diversion volumes as an offset toward their zero waste reporting. Continuus boards are an advanced engineered composite building material that are extremely durable and ideal for superior building envelope performance.

“When I was running the recycling program for the State of California, we really didn’t have large enough markets for recycled material,” said Bridgett Luther, former President of the Cradle to Cradle Products Innovation Institute, in a statement. “Continuus has proven they can take mixed paper and plastics and use them to make products and create jobs here in the United States. That’s what recycling is really all about—closing the loop. Not just collecting the materials but turning them into products that can be used over and over.”