[October 17, 2008]

Chattanooga: Long-lasting billboards give eco edge

(Chattanooga Times (Free Press, TN) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Oct. 17--The days of tattered, ripped and fading billboard signs in the Chattanooga area may be a thing of the past thanks to new material with a life span that goes on long after the signs come down.

Fairway Outdoors Advertising is doing its part for the environment and pleasing advertisers and workers, too, by changing out their old paper signs -- the kind requiring a sticky, wet potato-starch glue -- for more eco-friendly ones made of polyethylene.

"This is a groundbreaking new product for the billboard industry," said Ken Guy, national director of operations for August, Ga.-based Fairway.

Commonly referred to as PE, the material is revolutionizing the billboard industry.

It is more durable than its paper counterpart, with the potential to last as long as 30 years, Mr. Guy said. Paper billboards do not withstand wind and rain, and recent hurricanes in the Southeast took down a number of Fairway signs.

"(The new signs) are much more durable in bad weather," he said. "They're not affected by the rain."

The uses for the more durable, lighter weight product don't end once the sign itself is no longer needed. Fairway has partnered Houston company Avangard to turn old sign material into a new type of railroad tie.

"They're looking at a lot of different uses for this," Mr. Guy said. "It's an emerging market."

Fairway maintains about 850 signs locally, including Cleveland, Tenn., and Dalton, Ga. The company, which employs about 30 people locally, began installing the signs in the area about a month ago.

"The benefit is primarily to the environment and the advertisers," Mr. Guy said. "The material being a plasticy material, rather than paper, it is much more durable and less affected by the weather."

For advertisers, the difference will be a longer lasting product offered so far for the same price.

"At this point it is a wash; there is no significant price difference up or down," he said, adding that advertisers have been pleased with the product. "Our target was a zero-cost change. That's the goal -- to make it a zero cost. Then it becomes a decision: What is the most environmentally friendly way to do something."

Paper billboards create landfill waste to the tune of 14 to 15 tons a year for Fairway, Mr. Guy said.

"We are trying to be a better corporate citizen than that," he said.

The company also is working in conjunction with the Outdoor Advertising Association of America and Avangard to set up a nationwide recycling program to include outdoor advertising companies from all over the country.

A new product also has meant a new method of installing the signs, something Fairway employee Kurt Pulver said employees find easier than applying the paper signs.

"It cuts down on waste and the guys love it," said Mr. Pulver, operations manager for Fairway.

Eddie Brown, who installs the signs for Fairway, said the new method is much easier and cleaner than applying the paper signs.

He described carrying one of the old paper signs -- weighing about 30 to 40 pounds and dripping with sticky liquid -- which are loaded into a bag so they can be hoisted 40 feet up to the sign itself. The installer, standing on a ladder, then rolls the strips of sign material onto the billboard. Mr. Brown said he would get covered in the sticky substance in the process.

With PE, the only time an installer is on the ladder is using it to get to the sign's platform. Once there, all he or she needs to do is attach the sign at several points using a tool. Mr. Brown can complete an installation in 15 to 20 minutes.

"This is a really good product," Mr. Guy said. "It is going to change a lot of things for the outdoor advertising industry."

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