Imagine a material lighter than steel, longer-lasting than lumber and strong enough to support 120-ton locomotives. Now imagine that material is made from milk containers, coffee cups and other plastics that we recycle. Invented by Thomas Nosker, HDPE is currently being used to build bridges on U.S. Army bases and elsewhere, docks, picnic tables, park benches, parking lot stops, outdoor furniture, and other structures across America and overseas. Nosker, a prolific inventor, and his colleagues have been on the leading edge of plastics research for decades. They developed several types of structural recycled plastic lumber, a standard way to test plastic lumber, fire retardants for plastic lumber and machines to make plastic lumber.