Graffiti - No Problem!



Spray Paint Graffiti - Before



By having a strict policy of removing graffiti within 24-hours of the occurrence and preferably before the end of the workday, you can help nip tagging in the bud. However, we can help while vandals are in the process of tagging. The recycled plastic signs or high density polyethylene signs we create have a water absorption rate of less than 1 percent which means spray paint, markers, and even engravers will find it hard to make their mark—and have it stick.

“They marked the pillars of the shelter and tried to write words on the signs. There were permanent marker marks on the sign but they wiped right off with soapy water and a rag,” says Doug Foley, director of Parks and Recreation for the City of Manchester. It took only 15 minutes to clean up the graffiti versus 8 hours of time if it had been a metal or wood sign, which most likely would have needed to be sanded and repainted.

Up Close - Graffiti Removed

“We have had one or two instances of graffiti spray paint and marker,” says Steve Mott, superintendent, Town of Mount Pleasant Parks and Recreation. “We removed it with graffiti remover and the signs were fine.”

“The recycled plastic material is inert and responds to several graffiti removers,” says Taylor Bressler, parks planning and project manager, Spokane Parks and Recreation. “If it gets gouged or burned you can easily sand it out.”

“We have yet to replace one sign due to vandalism in the last ten years,” says Todd Younkin, deputy director, Preservation Parks of Delaware County. “The endurance and durability of the plastic signs acts as a deterrent.”

GRAFFITI REMOVING PRODUCTS

We have recommended and used a number of different Graffiti Removers in the past and wanted to list a few resources for you to check out. 

- Remover Magic by Certol

- Graffiti Safe Wipes

- Elephant Snot

In our experiences, we have been really happy with Remover Magic by Certol and have some samples in case you are curious. 

Customer Profile - Preservation Parks of Delaware County

Routed Plastic Sign with
Laser Engraved Logo Insert

Recycled plastic signs will cost a little more than other kinds of signs like wood or metal but you will quickly see the return on your investment as the signs do not need to be sanded or painted. Plus, since the high density polyethylene has a less than 1 percent water absorption rate , nothing sticks to the sign and that includes every park manager’s foe – graffiti.

“We look at the long run cost savings and even though these signs are a little more expensive, over the long run they are less expensive than repeatedly replacing the signs,” says Todd Younkin, deputy director, Preservation Parks of Delaware County. “They blend in well together and are consistent in size, color, and font. Every time I order, they are exactly like the ones I ordered before which is important in keeping the overall consistency of the signs in the parks.” And, Younkin would know since they have right around 300 recycled plastic signs from us.

We can supply signs that look exactly like the ones bought years ago. In fact, Preservation Parks of Delaware County installed new signs next to signs that have been out in the field exposed to the elements for years and couldn’t see a noticeable difference—even when the signs are side-by-side. 

Over 300,000 people visit the nine parks that cover over 1,000 acres and signage is important to make sure everyone has a good experience. Signage includes: pets on leash, directional signs, hiking trail markers, trail names, no fishing, rules and regulations, wildlife viewing blind, and more.

“If we had someone out painting them, with as many signs as we have, it would take them a couple of weeks,” says Younkin. “We are probably saving between $1-2,000 per year but just not having someone paint the signs. There is literally no maintenance that we have done to the recycled plastic signs.”

Customer Profile - Town of Mount Pleasant

With 12 parks covering over 300 acres of land, the Town of Mount Pleasant, New York needed a simplified and affordable way to handle their ongoing need for park signs. The primary need for park signage was at the entrance of the parks.

They opted to switch from the original routed redwood signs to the recycled plastic signs that have a brown exterior and a contrasting vibrant yellow interior. We created visually appealing park entrance signs with the park’s name routed on it with the yellow as the lettering. The resulting signs are readily visible and have virtually no maintenance.

The redwood signs required sanding and painting every few years. Plus, the wood signs were heavy which created structural problems with the bolt holes becoming weak.

The Town of Mount Pleasant has about 20 signs from us and are switching the rest of their signs to our recycled plastic signs. “We are saving about 40 hours per year,” says Steve Mott, superintendent, Town of Mount Pleasant Parks and Recreation. “Once we change over all the signs, we expect to see at least 80 man-hours a year in savings.”

For a parks department with limited funding this is an important savings tool. Plus, they like the way the signs look and that there is almost no maintenance. In fact, when a sign was marked up with spray paint and marker they removed the graffiti with graffiti remover. Can you imagine if that was a wood sign? Mott estimates it would take nearly 40 hours to have a wood sign removed, sanded, repainted, and then reinstalled.

Recycled plastic signs are resilient against graffiti because they have almost no porosity—there simply is nothing for the graffiti to stick to.

Customer Profile - City of Spokane Parks and Recreation

Salt eats away at everything including wooden park signs. Spokane Parks and Recreation Department in Spokane, Washington decided to switch from wooden park signs to more durable recycled plastic park entrance signs. They also wanted to standardize the look of the park entrance signs including the color, size, design, and fonts.

The high density polyethylene park entrance signs are 45 by 24-inches and are supported by two plastic 4-inch square posts. The park signs are a combination of a beige background with green lettering. The first Park-Signs’ sign was installed over a decade ago.

Spokane Parks and Recreation now has 120 recycled plastic signs from us. This includes 87 entrance signs with the rest being signs for the aquatic center, trails, and disc golf course. All of the signs are in the same format and coloring to provide universal and easily identifiable markers.

“We don’t fuss with the signs unless they need to be repaired, replaced, or installed,” says Taylor Bressler, parks planning and project manager, Spokane Parks and Recreation. “We don’t have to touch-up or apply any paint to the signs. That is a lot of time savings.” Bressler notes that they would have spent a solid month with an individual traveling from park to park fixing the wooden signs because wood rots but now the maintenance staff is free to work on other projects.

By switching to routed recycled plastic signs Bressler estimates that Spokane Parks and Recreation saves about $20,000 in not having to replace signs. “The signs last a long time and the material is getting less and less expensive,” says Bressler. “The signs are durable and are visually consistent even over several years.”

Customer Profile - City of Manchester Parks and Recreation

In central Iowa, the small town Manchester has about 5,000 residents. The Parks and Recreation for the City of Manchester manages seven parks, numerous trails, aquatic center, recreation center, tennis courts, basketball courts, and even a pond that serves as the venue for water ski shows.

“We have a park sign located at the entrance of each of our parks,” says Doug Foley, director of Parks and Recreation for the City of Manchester. “We have the recycled plastic park entrance signs placed at the most visible location for the park in a nice flower bed to create an inviting entrance.”

The park signs made from high density polyethylene are four and half feet wide by three feet tall. The recycled plastic park signs are speckled grey with the park name and logo of the city skyline routed out exposing the black layer of the recycled plastic board.

“We like the signs because they do what we are looking for and it is an environmentally responsible product,” says Foley. “We can keep continuity between our parks.” Although, the original signs where installed sometime ago we were able to match new signs to the same format and style as the older ones.

We have helped the Parks and Recreation for the City of Manchester develop more visually appealing artwork for the signs while keeping the park name as the focus of the sign. “The signs are durable. We have had them in our parks for over a decade and you can hardly tell they have been used,” says Foley. “You can barely tell which one is an old sign and which is the new one.”

Routing Artwork

Getting a park sign to look just like what you imagined begins with great artwork, a durable high density polyethylene (HDPE) board, and our CNC Routing System. A CNC Router is a computer numerical controlled system which means the computer controls the pathways the router bit takes on the recycled plastic signs. 


We utilize this technology to layout the tool paths for the router to cut the appropriate logos, numbers, and letters out of the 4 x 8 foot recycled plastic sheet. Our HDPE sheets are a combination of two outside colors and one contrasting inside color. This long-lasting “sandwich” style sheet is created from bringing together the three color layers of plastic when it is still in the molten state. The result is a strong recycled plastic sign that is impossible to delaminate.

CNC in action



The computer controlled routing system combined with the durability of the pigmented HDPE allows us to carve as small as one-inch in lettering size for your sign. This provides you with the ability to add more detail to your park signs than you ever would be able to with a hand routed wooden sign.

We also have the versatility to do very large park entrance signs. The largest sign we have completed is at the Lorain County Regional Airport in Ohio. The entrance sign measures 96H x 360W inches.

By routing our recycled plastic signs using the CNC Routing System, we create unique park signs with structural depth that are weather and graffiti resistant. Since the HDPE has no surface porosity, is very smooth, and has a water absorption rate of less than 1 percent—nothing sticks to the surface this includes dirt, mildew, mold, or graffiti.

Getting to know what your sign is made from!

As a custom fabricator of recycled plastic signs, Park-Signs.net get a lot of questions about the material we use. Naturally so, it is a relatively new material system which is gaining popularity because of its maintenance-free properties.  So how does one take recycled plastic like milk jugs and turn it into an engraved plastic sign? Well here is a little insight into the manufacturing process.

Various Color Combinations for HDPE sheeting.

RAW MATERIAL
To give you a better understanding of the process, I will first start by providing you with some information on the materials involved in making the HDPE Sheets. 

There are two material streams that are utilized when making HDPE plastic sheeting which are then used in the manufacturing of our customer signs. There is virgin plastic which is just another term for a plastic that does not contain any recycled content. You could think of it as first generation plastic. This typically comes in pellet form and is white to off white in color. This type of HDPE is used in lighter colors and in whites because, often the recycled plastic contains other materials that do not get sorted out when they were processed at the recycling center. These contaminants can cause discoloration and be seen pretty easily in light colors. The other material stream is post consumer (milk jugs, plastic bottles, hula hoops) and  or post industrial recycled content. The best source for this application is milk jugs and plastic bottle because of the pigmentless colors. Fellow recyclers would be familiar with it indication as a #2 plastic.  

Of course there is a number of other additives that provide the product with some of it great attributes. The most important of these might be the UV Stabilizers. This additive does two things. One, it helps prevent the Sun's UV rays from breaking down and deteriorating the plastic. Two, it prevents those same UV rays from fading or bleaching out the plastic pigments. 

THE PROCESS
In order to manufacture the three layered plastic sheeting, companies use a process referred to as extrusion. And if you have ever seen someone make sausage, it is a similar concept. I know, not quite the industrial example you might have been looking for but I think it gets the point across. Or the Play-Doh machine where you would stuff the Play-Doh in one end and squeeze it out the other into whatever shape you had attached to the end where it comes out.  So hopefully that painted the right picture. Again, a little elementary but the point is illustrated. 

This particular extrusion process in called co-extrusion because involves two separate extruders that work at the same time. As you can tell from the picture at the top of this entry, there are three different layers of plastic, which come together in the plastic's molten state to produce a plastic that can never delaminate, which is a huge plus when it comes to the durability of the product. Before these plastics are made into sheet form they are fed in pellet form, into the extruder's hoppers that funnel the plastic, along with any additives into the core of the extruder, or the barrel. This is where the magic happens....or the melting. Inside of the barrel a screw is housed which produces heat by rotating and causing friction and moves the plastic down stream and eventually out of the extruder. There are also additional heaters outside of the barrel which aide in helping melt the plastic to its optimal temperature. Once the plastic has been homogeneously mixed together, distributing color and additives evenly, it continues it's trip from the hot to cold side. 

When passing from the hot (barrel & screw) to the cold (cooling tanks) it goes through one very important part of the process.  This is where the molten plastic gets its shape.  The molten plastic passes through a die which is formed to shape whatever specific dimension the sheet will be extruded in.  Typically in this industry to yield to a four foot width.  It is a continuous flow of the newly formed plastic until it meets it's specified length further down the conveyor belt and is cut.  The material is then left flat and cooled until ready for storage and eventually shipment.

That is a very technical description of how the plastic sheets we utilize are made.  In the future we will focus on other characteristics that make this such a great product to use for any signage application.  We will also focus on some interesting field results.  Hopefully sharing with you some success stories!

Til next time friends!

Dave