That might be because the practice has not only infected the national psyche, but has become part of the local law, including here in Baltimore County.

Along with this trend, the number of Maryland companies that use recycled materials has grown.

Take Joe Penxa for example.

Penxa, who owns Versa-Tile, makes multi-colored non-slip drain tiles that are used as decking on tennis courts and around swimming pools, gardens and beach condos.

Penxa’s tiles are made from recycled milk bottles.

Other uses of recycled plastics include lumber and award plaques.

In Elkridge, Plastic Lumber specialties acts as the distributor for plastic lumber made by two companies. And Design Recycle in Laurel makes award plaques out of recycled detergent bottles.

"Recycling has become fairly constant for both individual and commercial uses over the last couple years," said Richard Keller, chief of Recycling for Maryland Environmental Services.

"We haven’t seen dramatic changes like in the late 1980s."

To demonstrate how quickly recycling has caught on, Keller said between 95% and 100% of the paper purchased by the state of Maryland is made from recycled paper.

In the early 1990s, Keller’s job was to help state and local governments comply with a 1988 state law requiring these entities to recycle a large portion of trash.

Once recycling began in earnest, however these state and municipalities found, however, there weren’t enough businesses specializing in turning recyclable materials into products.

So the second wave came as they encouraged businesses to create products out of the trash.

The number of firms has grown so much so that that Keller is working on a catalog listing all the companies that manufacture from recylables.

For Joe Penxa, who owns Versa-tile, the decision to use recycled materials was a marketing decision. Penxa decided he would have an edge over the other two manufacturers of plastic tiles if he used recycled materials.

It’s certainly not because he saves money. In fact, Penxa said using recycled milk bottles is more expensive and more difficult to use than virgin materials.

"So I came up with a plan to see what people’s response to recycled materials is, " Penxa said. His plan was to gauge people’s reaction to a question he posed at the Home and Garden Show at the Timonium Fairgrounds.

From his booth, Penxa would call out to people, "Would you like to see what we are doing with your recycled milk bottles?"

In this unscientific manner, he discovered that primarily younger couples and older women were interested in recycled materials.

Since then, Penxa maintains that having a product made of recycled materials has helped him get jobs including one at the Hyatt Regency in Baltimore City in which he laid 30,000 feet of tile in its pool and tennis court area on the roof.

"The concrete was worn, which was creating drainage problems that left a continual pool of water in the center of the tennis court," he said. "With my tiles, even if there is water on the tennis court, it doesn’t affect the game."

Penxa isn’t new to the business of manufacturing products from plastics. Since World War II he has worked for companies that manufacture plastic machine parts. In 1989, he started C&J Decorative Plastics, which makes airplane parts.

C&J Decorative Plastics is located across the hallway from the hangar at Martin State Airport where Versa-Tile is located. After he created Versa-tile six years ago, he handed over control of C&J to his sons.

The creation of Versa-tile has jump-started his enthusiasm for plastics.

Penxa learned of the tile during a business trip to England. An attorney for the state of Maryland had asked Penxa to check on a tile manufacturing company that was considering going multi-national.

After seeing the product, Penxa realized it would be natural for him to expand his business in that direction.

"He wanted a partner in the United States," Penxa said. "I thought it was a great idea because there are only three or four players in the United States and about a million users."

After several misses at developing ties with the London manufacturer of tiles for tennis courts, Penxa decided to develop his own.