Mauve Paint, Coal Fired Power Plants, and Soda Bottles.
When we think of our homes and the finishes on the interiors, we have realized that many of these materials can be better for our health and better for the environment. We do not want to sacrifice quality or aesthetic but we are not going to pay more for it. This is accomplishable now and there is a way to take this one step further. Using materials that have recycled content within them is a great way to get the same (or a lot of times a better) aesthetic without spending more in terms of cost. In this eighth installment of looking into the NAHB’s Model Green Building Guidelines, we will look into this concept deeper.
There are essentially two types of recycled content: pre/post-consumer and post-industrial. Pre-consumer content comes from materials generated in manufacturing, such as damaged or obsolete products, overruns and trimmings. Post-consumer materials contain materials that have been used and discarded by a consumer – this includes paper, plastic, steel, rubber and similar items. Post-industrial content are byproducts of industrial processes that would otherwise end up in a landfill. Using products with a level of recycled content has gotten much easier as these products have proliferated.
There are some products that are already in widespread use that people may not be aware contain recycled content. These are things like concrete that contains fly ash. Fly ash is one of the residues generated in the combustion of coal. Also, backing paper that is a part of gypsum wall board is made almost entirely of recycled newspaper. The gypsum board manufacturers also rely increasingly on “synthetic” gypsum as an effective alternative to natural gypsum. Synthetic gypsum is a byproduct primarily from the desulfurization of flue gases in fossil-fueled power plants. This material, too, would otherwise be disposed of in landfills were it not used to manufacture gypsum panel products. This is why we support coal fired powered plants – without them we wouldn’t be able to harvest these recycled products – KIDDING. Seriously, these two products are great uses of recycled content – there should be labels on the products indicating the amount of the content.
Other products that are available with high amounts of recycled content are tile, carpet, insulation, countertops and, most interestingly, paint. Ceramic tiles may be made from post industrial waste generated by the production of conventional tiles. Some manufacturers produce tiles that contain 50 to 100 percent manufacturing waste. Recycled carpet can be made from recycled polyethylene terephthalate (PET) or from used carpet. PET plastic is usually found in plastic soda bottles. About 40 two-liter soda bottles are recycled per square yard of carpeting. The backing used for recycled content carpet is the same as traditional carpets. Recycled content carpet fiber is said to be more resilient and colorfast than virgin fiber carpet. Fiberglass insulation uses waste glass in up to 40% of some manufacturer’s products. Spray foam insulations can be made with recycled newspaper and telephone directories. We wonder if you source this locally would you still be able to use the telephone directory after application…probably not. Countertops can use recycled content made out of recycled newspapers with soy based resins. Certain lines of this product look like granite. On the higher end, recycled glass countertops are stunning – looking at times like radiant sea glass.
Recycled paint caught our attention as this is something new to us! Made out of unused latex paint collected from households, government, businesses and painting contractors with some added new materials to improve the paint's consistency and make standard colors. The standard colors kind of bothered us – we were hoping it would have a mixture of all the colors per brush/roller stroke. There are two types of recycled-content paint: reprocessed and reblended. Although both types originate from the collection of leftover latex paint, there are important differences. Reprocessed paint is mixed with virgin materials. Reprocessed paint typically contains a minimum of 20% post-consumer content. Reblended paint is re-mixed, screened, and packaged for distribution. Virgin raw materials such as resins and colorants may be added in much small quantities. Typically, reblended paint contains anywhere from 80% to 100% post-consumer content.
All of these products divert what would just go to a landfill into useful building materials. The price is consistent with products only containing virgin materials in many cases the product is more durable. From a life cycle costing perspective this is a home run. Similar upfront cost and will last longer – couple that with reducing landfill volume – and you have achieved the perfect triple bottom line. Besides, you get to tell people that you redirected products from the landfill to your foyer – well, maybe you should phrase that differently.
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