Green Statement

The vision of National School Lines is to manufacture school furniture with minimal impact to the environment by using recycled and recyclable materials, low-emitting components, and clean, safe manufacturing processes. In today's throw-away society, National School Lines is committed to building high-quality, durable furniture where parts can easily be replaced, repaired, or updated in the field. If you are interested in LEED points or are simply responsibly furnishing a school, you can consider the following sustainable attributes of National School Lines products:

Recyclable content approximately 100% - Steel has been discounted for consideration of recycled content according to FTC guidelines, since all steel has the same recycled content. Metal frames and components can currently be 100% recycled.

Renewable materials - The primary components of classroom furniture are steel and melamine. The melamine is approximately 40%-60% wood flour, which is 100% waste by-product of the paper mill industry. Typically this product is cleaned up at the mill site and left in piles or sent to landfill facilities. Melamine components can currently be 100% recycled and used as sandblasting substrate.

Low-emitting materials of composite wood - According to the EPA, hard plastic or melamine seats and backs are made of a nonmeasurable level of off-gas.

Cardboard packaging - National School Lines works with our suppliers and customers to provide and use 95% recyclable or reusable shipping materials. National School Lines sends out between 100 and 120 one-ton bales of compressed cardboard for recycling purposes each year!

0% Performance impact - National School Lines uses a majority of materials that are considered 0% performance impact. These items include: scrap that is processed and made of 5% recycled content, particle board made of 5% recycled material, backer made of 100% recycled laminate content, steel made of 2% recycled steel content, and cardboard made of 45% post-consumer recycled fiber content.

Waste reduction - Our product is built to be 100% recyclable. National School Lines has located a mill that will shred and recycle steel frames, in spite of chromium and nickel content.

Fossil fuels - National School Lines has historically been a strong regional supplier of classroom furniture. Located in Omro, Wisconsin, our 500-mile radius includes most of Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Minnesota, and Iowa. In addition, we can ship product in approximately 50% the cubic feet necessary to ship standard classroom furniture because our product has been designed for ease of assembly. In short, frames can be stacked more densely and plastic components packed separately. National School Lines' components are 100% American-made including: glides, controls, and hinges (which are typically acquired from off-shore sources). Wherever possible, we use local suppliers.

Quality - In this disposable world, we feel it is important to build a product that will last a lifetime. We manufacture using heavier gauges of steel and American-made glides (for better holding power). Our nickel chrome supplier has utilized a "duplex" chrome process that adds an additional 2-3 mil of nickel chrome to the surface material. As a result, the end finish on each individual frame totals in the range of 4-5 mil of chrome vs. the typical 2 mil used by our competition.

National School Lines also has the capability to address a multitude of color options in the powder paint area with its advanced powder paint facility located adjacent to our 30,000 square-foot climate-controlled assembly facility. All paint units use an environmentally safe powder-coating process including the recycling and reuse of overspray. We stand behind our product with a Lifetime Structural Warranty.

All factories today look to reduce waste. We not only want to preserve the environment, but we also want to practice proper business ethics. In a larger sense, our contribution will be in our ability to recycle.

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