Homasote "Thinks Globally But Acts Locally." To fully appreciate Homasote's commitment to this statement requires a visit to its West Trenton, New Jersey, manufacturing facility. Here, wastepaper is recycled into quality boards utilized in thousands of commercial, residential and industrial applications throughout the nation and the world. Recycling and resource management are more than slogans at Homasote. They are full-time jobs. Running at maximum capacity, recycling of wastepaper reaches about 350 tons a day. That's 80,000 tons a year or the equivalent of 1,370,000 trees!

The unique manufacturing process begins when a trailer bearing a cargo of wastepaper pulls onto the Homasote paper storage floor where it is unloaded. The raw material is fed by conveyor into a "hydrapulper" - a huge, 13 ft. - deep steel cylindrical vat of rapidly swirling water heated to 140° F. The high speed rotor in the bottom of the vat reduces the raw material into a grayish slurry of water and pulp.

The refined slurry is then fed into holding tanks for temporary storage. From the tanks, the paper fiber mix is conveyed to 8' x 12' forming molds which shape the product. The formed sheet is then conveyed to a press which determines the proper board thickness through a combination of time and pressure. The still wet, pliable sheets are then moved on rollers through a 225 ft. enclosed dryer for about three hours. After molding, pressing and drying, the sheets are ready to be cut to size to be made into a variety of Homasote products. Water removed from the Homasote boards during manufacturing is confined in a closed-loop system so it can be recycled, further preserving the environment.