Materials Part 2
Post consumer recycled materials should be used for non food packaging, I'll be making that choice: I think pre consumer recycled materials are good for more sterile applications, meaning for the interior of buildings, a kitchen cabinet, flooring, wall partitions, etc. Post consumer, who knows what is in that stuff. I figure even if they are washing it or treating it that would add chemicals to it (or activate some already dormant), and it would waste more resources, so I might as well use it only for boxing, shipping, and protecting... Debating against the millions of dollars put into the marketing of these recycled raw materials is beyond me, I'll consume as logic tells me. For example this image below is from the Association of Postconsumer Plastic Recyclers:
Yes, you can make a plastic bottle into Berber carpets, but Berber is a type of WEAVING: Berber can be made from an assorted group of materials. The industry would love for us to use materials as they like, using marketing like this I'm sure they'll continue to convince a few. But Berber weave is best felt on your feet when made of Wool (PETA doesn't like any use of Wool). What a dilemma: for everything you encourage, there is another group opposing.
With the intentions that what ever I use for wrapping will be made of Post Consumer Recycled Materials, the public will then take to the recycling bin where it will enter the cycle once again... We'll only use it for a little while...
to be continued...
dl.v
Material Theory Part 1
I like the idea of Cradle to Cradle (less the certification part: do good cause its the right thing to do, I can't knock their business plan it is brilliant). As a small business owner with very little resources to certify anything taking a grass roots approach to C2C is better than nothing.
I am considering:
- Material Sourcing
- transportation distances and method
- post consumer recycled packaging
- wood/metal waste recycling @ 100%
- non toxic stains and sealers
Carefully thinking about that list, studying and researching where materials come from, how they get to the studio, how I use them and where the scraps go. Interestingly I'll share how little the regional suppliers care about anything I've described above...
Thinking about what wood I'll be using to build these pieces I've looked up local wood suppliers, and Dixie Ply moved to the top of the list. Last week I packed up my son Marcus into the wagon and headed to their warehouse to see for myself how they operate (located about 7 miles from the studio). When we got there we saw a large warehouse with doors wide open exposing huge stacks of wood to the Southern Sky, the smell of fresh cut wood and glue filled the air... I noticed that next door to the warehouse were rail road tracks so I was excited at the prospect of actually having wood that was transported from the middle east coast forests to this warehouse by train! So I quickly wrote the "green expert" on the Columbia website and this is the reply I got (read on to know why Columbia).
"...The green plywood products sold at are Miami location are transported primarily by truck. The non-formaldehyde plywood comes from North Carolina and Virginia. We use standard diesel fuel in the delivery trucks..."
There goes that idea, but diesel is better than gas (I guess), so I'll take that! Hopefully its a fully loaded truck, filled to the gills! Making best use of all that fuel... Hopefully... Again, I must have faith in the system, I can't tell them how to do things but I can ask... How does LEED approach this? Do you demand that the 100 sheets of plywood you need come by train? Do you demand that this train be filled to capacity thus maximizing its efficiency? Ok, I think I made my point.
Back to the other point: Being an Architect with a wood shop I am allowed to purchase from Dixieply, and they have a pretty good selection of "Ecoplywood" which is made by Columbia Forest Products. The glue is non toxic, and the wood itself comes from certified forests... Again, I have faith that this is the case. Getting in my car and driving up to North Carolina and Virginia isn't gonna happen till early next year... I'll take a road trip up there burn all that fuel to document for you guys what the forest looks like or maybe someone up there will take some pictures for me... Again, part of documenting where it all comes from...
So my material sourcing theory is pretty responsible I think, no complicated theory just very simple: know where it comes from, know if its toxic, understand how it performs, and brace yourself for the price! Yes, anything labeled GREEN is expensive. Its a brilliant business model I can't knock it, but I am suspicious. In order to tell me something was done well someone spent lots of resources to do so, but the supply chain doesn't adhere to the same principles as was the development team of the product, so in the end it all must balance out... I was told, checked, verified, guess hope.
After my responsible wood sourcing venture, I am still waiting for my material samples which have been mistakenly delivered stained, rather than natural finish. So we have to wait for another week until another correct set of samples is sent. These samples are critical in determining my over all costs, you see once I have the pieces entirely modeled on the computer I will have an exact idea of quantities, which will be inputted into my spreadsheet and a magic number will appear: Material Costs. <--- a very loaded definition, but I will let it rest.
to be continued...
dl.v
