Temple-Inland is no newcomer when it comes to producing environmentally responsible gypsum board. It’s a commitment and a process that began sixteen years ago in 1984.
Here are some of the highlights of our use of synthetic gypsum.
1984 Temple-Inland begins using a 10% blend of synthetic gypsum with natural rock at their West Memphis, Arkansas facility.
1985-1993 Production continues successfully with a 10% blend of synthetic gypsum. A reliable, cost-efficient resource for more synthetic gypsum is sought.
1994 Temple-Inland negotiates with the Tennessee Valley Authority to provide a consistent supply of synthetic gypsum.
1995 Temple-Inland increases the blend of synthetic gypsum in their board to 30% and begins the reengineering of their handling and processing equipment to accommodate higher amounts of synthetic gypsum. By the time these upgrades were completed, over $1 million was invested in process improvements to Temple-Inland’s West Memphis facility.
1996 A gradual increase throughout the year raises the level of synthetic gypsum in the blend from 50% to 60%, and finally to 70% by the end of 1996.
1997 On December 17th of 1997, Temple-Inland’s West Memphis gypsum board plant begins producing board using only synthetic gypsum in the core, and has continued to run that way since. As a result, a very high-quality board with higher purity levels and a smaller particle size than previously possible is now being manufactured in this facility.
1997 Plans for a new facility in Cumberland City, Tennessee, engineered from the ground up to produce board with synthetic gypsum, begins to take shape.
1999 Temple-Inland’s Cumberland City facility starts up in September with an annual production capacity of over 700 million square feet of board manufactured entirely with synthetic gypsum.
2000 Scientific Certification Systems (SCS) certifies two levels of Temple-Inland wallboard from our West Memphis, Arkansas and Cumberland City, Tennessee facilities. Regular gypsum wallboard is certified as containing at least 99% recycled material on a dry weight basis. Other wallboard products are certified as at least 95% recycled material (dry weight basis) due to the presence of other raw materials that give each product its performance characteristics.
2006 ISO 14201 standards are adopted as the certification process standards for all Temple-Inland gypsum facilities.
Today, of Temple-Inland’s four gypsum board facilities, West Memphis, Cumberland City and Fletcher produce products certified to contain at least 90% recycled material with some products containing a minimum of 98%. Our McQueeney facility is currently undergoing the conversion process and gypsum board produced there is currently certified to contain 45% recycled material.
Our goal is that 100% of our gypsum board production capacity will be manufactured to contain recycled material.