Tuesday, June 30, 2015

The U.S. Recycling Industry Building Steam, Reducing Emissions

The U.S. Recycling industry has grown to be larger than many people would ever think.  It’s evolved into a complex engine that collects and supplies 130,000 million metric tons of scrap waste that will eventually be used as raw materials in new products.  According to the ISRI (Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries) the recycling industry itself employees 138,000 men and woman in this country and in total creates over $100 billion a year in revenue.  About a third of that revenue comes in the form of exports like steel and plastic that goes to countries like Chinaand India.  The recycling industry is growing and its total revenue has more than doubled over the last 10 years.  This is great news because recycling reduces our greenhouse gas emissions by dramatically reducing the amount of energy needed to manufacture new products.  It also conserves our natural resources by reducing mining and deforestation and it significantly impacts our landfills.  All in all, I think it’s pretty safe to say that recycling is one of the most beneficial things that we currently do for our planet.   

Paper, plastic, rubber, aluminum, iron, copper, steel, all these recycled materials are likely destined to be used as a raw material in the creation of a new product.  How likely?  Well, we’re better at recycling certain materials over others and it’s probably ultimately dependent on the material’s value and ability to be repurposed.  We’re probably the best at recycling metals, according to the ISRI we capture almost 70% of steel waste though recycling.  Aluminum isn’t too far behind with a 67% recycled rate and almost 64% of the paper we consume is recovered.  Plastic doesn’t fare as well but recovery percentages have improved dramatically over the last few years.  Based on the ISRI statistics we’re able to capture approximately two thirds of our recyclable materials.  Not bad, but how can we do more?

I’m not an economist or a recycling industry expert but I have a simple response to the above question, we can create more eco-friendly building materials using recycled content.  Many people are unaware that over the last few decades a number of U.S. manufacturers have developed eco-friendly building materials made from recycled content.  These pioneers have created stylish and fully functional building materials like wallboard (drywall) made from recycled paper milk cartons and even beautiful countertops made from recycled paper.  Companies are also using recycled plastic and rubber to make several building materials including: flooring, decking, siding, shingles, wall coverings and more.  The eco-friendly building materials industry is still developing and new products are continuously entering the market.  We live in a time when there is tremendous opportunity for entrepreneurs and inventors to create new building materials that are manufactured using a majority recycled content.  I believe the recycling industry will be pivotal in our world’s effort to reduce green house gas pollution and combat climate change.  I hope the eco-friendly building materials industry can serve as a strong partner, thanks for reading!






Sunday, June 28, 2015

Small and Galley Kitchen Ideas for all budgets

Small and Galley kitchens can sometimes be more challenging when it comes to modern kitchen remodeling. It’s not just the size that’s a challenge but often times things become complicated because of budgets.  Let’s face it, not everyone has a large home where the kitchen lay out is nice and spacious.  This can make things more challenging when trying to determine how much to invest in remodeling your kitchen.  Small and galley kitchens often times can’t be increased in size so you have to remodel with in the same layout.   And of course, the size of your kitchen and property in general will impact the price in which you can sell your home. In today’s blog we’re going give you some kitchen building material ideas for your small and galley kitchen with three different budgets in mind.  Of course, we’re going to keep things as eco-friendly as we can!

Ok, so if it works out that you want to put a sizable investment into your small or galley kitchen here are some ideas that might help.  As you know, in a small or galley kitchen overall space is at a premium especially when it comes to the width or depth of the galley kitchen.   If you have a solid budget the first thing you should consider is custom cabinets.  We prefer non-toxic bamboo because it's the most eco-friendly cabinetry on the planet.  But as long as you stay with something non-toxic that should add value to your home and give you peace of mind in the process.  If you end up having cabinets custom made you can consider making the depth of the cabinets a few inches smaller.  This can help create more space in the runway area of the galley or small kitchen making the overall space seem larger.  Cabinet depth can be reduced on floor and wall custom cabinets but understand you’ll lose a little in both cabinet and counter space.  Also, please keep in mind the depth of your appliances...

If you have a modest budget custom cabinets may not be the best option for you.  If this is the case you may want to consider investing your money into the galley kitchen backsplash, countertop, and flooring. Instead of replacing the cabinets all together you could change the color of the cabinets and replace the doors with something more modern.  New hardware is a great addition and if you’re replacing the doors you could consider including a few glass panel doors or leave a few cabinets without doors all together.   Recycled paper countertops definitely fit into a mid sized budget and we believe will add extended value because it’s an eco-friendly building material.  Make sure to consult a design professional when it comes to color selections as the colors will be crucial when it comes to the space design of a small or galley kitchen.

If it doesn’t make sense to put much money into your kitchen we’ve all been there. It just means you’ll have to be a bit more creative and maybe get your hands dirty completing your small or galley kitchen remodel. Restaining or repainting your cabinets is a great way to affordably change the look of a small or galley kitchen. If your countertops have seen better days you can consider adding a tile countertop or butcher block.  A tile countertop using large sized tiles and a wood moulding or metal trim edge can modernize any kitchen and cost you less than $100 in the process.   You can also get creative with a modern backsplash using affordable things like recycled glass or reclaimed wood.  Hope these ideas help you with your small or galley kitchen remodel. Please try to keep it eco-friendly if you can, thanks for reading!






Wednesday, June 24, 2015

Repurposed Furniture Equals Happy Planet!

I’m not sure if you’re aware but repurposed furniture (upcycled furniture) is trending in the world right now.  Unfortunately, trends seem to come and go but what if some how repurposed furniture became the most popular furniture sold?   We don’t usually talk hypothetical on the Paper Blog but I thought we’d step out a bit in this post.  To answer the question, a whole lot of things would change and our environment would probably come away the biggest winner. Before we get into answering this hypothetical question in detail, let’s first examine the current environmental benefits of repurposed furniture.  Repurposed furniture really makes two positive impacts to our environment.  First, by repurposing a preexisting item it prevents a new item from ever being manufactured.  If we reduce the manufacturing of new furniture on a mass scale that in turn would reduce deforestation or other materials consumption as well as transportation of the goods.  Second, by making a used piece of furniture into a repurposed new item, it prevents the original item from being added to a landfill or even worse burned.  

Ok, back to the question at hand.  What would change in the world if repurposed furniture became the most popular type of furniture sold?  I think it’s safe to say landfills would likely be significantly impacted as almost no furniture would probably make it there.  A large supply of used furniture pieces and other items would be required in order to make all the repurposed furniture needed.  Second, U.S. furniture imports would likely be severely reduced as demand would drop to make room for repurposed furniture.  Third, I think it’s safe to say there would also be a mass of U.S. jobs created as we’d need lots of upcyclers to actually make the repurposed furniture.  This level of job creation would certainly make a positive impact on the U.S. economy.  Finally, as mentioned above the planet would greatly benefit in a number of ways if repurposed furniture were to become the most popular furniture sold.  All in all, if repurposed furniture were to become the most popular furniture sold it would create positive changes for both our environment and economy.  I’m not saying this is a realistic change that’s going to happen anytime soon.  But it’s been fun pondering, thanks for reading!


Friday, June 12, 2015

Recycled metal, the good and the bad…

The metals that we use to manufacture our cars, our building materials, kitchen and home appliances, and even our food containers combine to make metal the most recycled material on the planet.  Almost everyone knows at this point in time not to throw metal in the trash.  In our last blog we discussed the environmental consequences of metal manufacturing.  In this blog we wanted to talk about metal recycling understanding both the benefits and the environmental concerns.  Metal recyclers in the United States handle appx 120 million tons of recycled materials each year.  In fact, metal recycling is around a $20 billion industry in the United States, that’s larger than U.S. steel manufacturing industry.  So, what are the environmental benefits of metal recycling?  Well, by using recycled materials as input the entire process of mining for iron ore is avoided.  This eliminates the deforestation and land destruction that would have previously taken place in order to produce the metal.  This is clearly a great thing but does using recycled input make metal manufacturing harmless to our environment?  Unfortunately it does not...    

Manufacturing metal using recycled input still requires a high temperature furnace.  The furnace is used to melt the recycled metal in order to be reformed or reshaped.   As we've talked about in previous blogs these furnaces are highly damaging to our environment because while in use they omit significant greenhouse gases and other toxins into our atmosphere.  Scientists and other researchers are working on technologies that will allow us to reform steel and other metals without having to use high polluting furnaces.   However, these methods could be decades away if not more.  Fortunately, recycled metal is big business in the world and it should continue to flourish as time goes on.  It’s clear that using recycled metals in the manufacturing of new metals is the environmental choice, well at least for now.  Many experts believe that in order to truly combat climate change we'll need to create eco-friendly alternatives to high omitting furnaces like those used to manufacture recycled metals.   Let’s hope these discoveries don’t take too long, personally I’d feel way better about it if we had lots of smart people working on it.  We need more…



Sunday, June 7, 2015

Steel and other metals, painful for the planet?

Steel is one of the most produced materials in the world, making up appx 2.5% of the U.S. GDP.   It is also currently the most abundant building material available on planet Earth with years of supply already on-hand.  So, pretty important question above, is steel production destructive to our planet?  The short, medium, and long answer to this question are a most definite Yes!  In today's blog we're going to discuss why the manufacturing of steel is so harmful and what's happening in the world to change this.

First, to understand why steel manufacturing is bad for our environment let's first examine how steel is made.   The process  kicks off with the mining of iron-ore minerals.   As we've discussed in previous blogs mining is very damaging to our planet because it includes deforestation and land clearing, the use of noxious chemicals, and an aftermath of dangerous exposure and leakage   Once the iron-ore has been gathered it's then shipped to a steel manufacturing facility for processing.   Once in production the iron-ore is smelted in blast furnaces (at temps up to 3600 degrees F) where the impurities are removed and carbon is added.  The definition of steel is "iron alloyed with carbon, usually less than 1%.  Facilities that carry out these processes are often associated with emission of  high quantities of air pollutants such as hydrogen fluoride, sulfur dioxide, oxides of nitrogen, offensive and noxious smoke fumes, vapors, gases, and other toxins.   Of course, it does not end with gases as heavy metals such as lead, arsenic, chromium, cadmium, nickel, copper, and zinc are also exposed.  All in all, the steel production process results in the single most damaging manufacturing process for our planet, that's no joke.

So what's being done?  We've discovered this to be a more complicated question in the world of steel.  Based on our research there isn't much being done unfortunately.  This is a very complex problem that has yet to be solved but there are at least a few people working on it.   MIT's materials chemistry professor Donald Sadoway and assistant professor of metallurgy Antoine ­Allanore have been working on a process called molten oxide electrolysis.  The process would make steel manufacturing emissionless but it is still very much in the R&D phase.  Steel is a completely recyclable material, but to be reformed it must be melted using a heavy omitting furnace.   The unfortunate reality is that in order to maintain our current lifestyles we need steel.  It's not just a building material it's also a key component of our kitchen appliances,  automobiles, and other forms of transporation as well as many of the tools we use everyday. Personally, I feel we should have skyscrapers full of people working on this problem...  With every great problem comes a great solution, let's hope!