Furniture’s impact on Earth, we can do better!

If you want to know how much impact our furniture has on the environment just do a quick web search.  There are tons of opinions out there on the topic but to be honest a lot of the information I read didn’t really tell me much.  As a result, we figured we’d chime in on the topic here at Paper Blog as our world’s furniture consumption is enormous and significantly impacts our planet.  In the U.S. alone, retail sales for furniture is in excess of $100 billion a year with over 30,000 retail sales outlets and a few thousand manufacturers who mostly import product from Asia.  This doesn’t factor in all of the used furniture outlets like craigslist, salvation army, consignment stores, garage sales, newspaper listings, office furniture, etc.   Our homes and businesses are loaded with different furniture pieces of all kinds.  The reality is that we manufacture a lot of new furniture on planet Earth when we have a ton of furniture already available to us.  So, what harm does new furniture have on our environment?  There are obvious things like deforestation as the core of any furniture is typically made with wood.  Some lower cost furniture is made with alternative products like MDF or particle board.  These materials are even more harmful to our environment because of the significant emissions from the toxic glues and chemicals used in the construction.  Furniture waste would also have to be considered, a lot of furniture ends up in U.S. landfills letting toxic paints, glues, and chemicals seep into the Earth.  All in all, it’s easy to see furniture consumption has significant environmental consequences much like our current building materials.  It’s also easy to see we have simple solutions like recycling to create repurposed furniture (upcycled furniture).  Repurposed (upcycled) furniture is currently just a tiny fraction of overall furniture sales so big changes would need to take place in order for the environment to benefit.  I hope the popularity of repurposed furniture (upcycled furniture) continues to grow in the world as it provides considerable environmental benefits as it eliminates both the manufacturing of a new item and the addition of waste to a landfill.  It would be great to see a day when a repurposed (upcycled) piece of furniture is more valuable and stylish then new furniture. That would be a good day for the planet, thanks for reading!

Sheeps just keep giving, Eco-friendly carpet!

In a past blog we’ve talked about how sheep’s wool is used as an eco-friendly building material in the form of home insulation.  Well, the sheeps in New Zealand want you to know that wool isn’t just for textiles and insulation, it also makes for a non-toxic eco-friendly carpet.  Standard carpet is typically made from polypropylene, nylon or polyester or some combination of those materials also combined with wool.  Polypropylene, nylon and polyester are petroleum based products that carry environmental consequences.  Now, that’s not to say a sheep doesn’t have environmental consequences as livestock in the world are major producers of greenhouse gas pollution.  As a result, there are experts that would probably challenge wool as a cut and dry eco-friendly carpet or building material input.  Whatever the case, wool is certainly natural and non-toxic which is also very important when it comes to carpet.   Possibly an even more eco-friendly carpet would be one made from recycled content like recycled plastic bottles.  U.S. manufacturer Mohawk makes a product called Everstrand with a patented process that takes premium PET from the highest-grade polymer, strengthens the fiber, and removes dirt-attracting residue with a multi-step purification system.   I think it’s pretty to safe to say the world of carpet has multiple eco-friendly options, I hope the options continue to develop.  Thanks for reading!

Holy Green Page

We’re full of confusing titles here at Paper Blog, let me explain this one. Holy as in Holy Moly and Green Page as in almost every company now a days has a Green Page or other Eco-Friendly related web page.  See, about a year ago I spent 4 months researching today's building materials and other home improvement related products including furniture, etc.  After scouring thousands and thousands of related company websites I came to realize a couple things about the 'eco-friendly shout out' corporate green page.  First, almost every company website (maybe 95%) in the building materials or home improvement world has a web page dedicated to their eco-friendly efforts.  An eco-friendly responsibility page has almost become a requirement in the building materials industry.  It's to the point where if you don't have a dedicated eco-friendly page, you'll probably get called out on it by some customer someday. Second, less than half of the Green Pages actually had anything to do with being eco-friendly.  I’m not trying to be critical, but as I read these pages the typical content seemed to be a challenged marketing writer's attempt at making a business that has no eco-friendly aspects, seem eco-friendly.  Now don’t get me wrong, there are a lot of companies out there that are actually doing things with in or outside of their business that helps our environment.  Even if their business has no eco-friendly aspects, companies have found ways to help our  planet through special programs and green efforts  Many thanks to those marking a difference and thanks for reading!

The Eco-friendly Modern Kitchen coming soon!

What does an eco-friendly kitchen look like?  Well, they come in different sizes and shapes but they’re always beautiful and of course, almost harmless to our planet.  In today’s blog we’re going to discuss the things that can make remodeling your modern kitchen eco-friendly in design and building materials.  These eco-friendly building material ideas will work for any kitchen, including small & galley or open and spacious kitchens.  Let’s kick off this eco-friendly kitchen remodeling discussion with cabinets.  If you’ve ever purchased kitchen cabinets before you probably know the choices and supplier types are endless.  Now a days, modern kitchen cabinets come in all different styles, quality levels, toxicity levels, and manufacturing locations.   You can affordably buy pre-made cabinets that were made overseas with toxic glues that contain loads of formaldehyde.  If you have a little more room in your budget you can have custom cabinets made on a local level.  But watch out because custom cabinets can also be loaded with formaldehyde.  When it comes to eco-friendly kitchen cabinets it all starts with them being non-toxic.  Today, the most eco-friendly non-toxic materials being used for cabinetry are bamboo and wheatboard.  Bamboo is a rapidly renewable material while wheatboard is made from recycled bio waste content, both can be made non-toxic.  Modern kitchen cabinets can also be made from non-toxic plywoods like oak, pine, and maple.  Whether or not wood cabinets can be considered eco-friendly is dependent upon what type of forest in which the wood came as well as your personal interpretation of wood as eco-friendly.  Many experts believe forest conservation would be an important step in combating global warming.  Now don’t forget, eco-friendly can also mean salvaging the cabinets you already have.  Some non-toxic paint or natural stains could help save your old cabinets by making them more modern.  Any time you extend the life of cabinetry that’s eco-friendly in our book.

Onto kitchen countertops, and you probably know what we’re going to say.  Yes, we love recycled paper countertops, it’s out there now!  We love them all over the house but our favorite in the kitchen is EcoTop.   EcoTop is a product that combines both recycled content in the form of recycled paper fibers and rapidly renewable content in the form of bamboo fibers to create a beautiful countertop material that has tons of character and will last for decades.  Another eco-friendly countertop option for the modern kitchen is recycled glass countertops.  Recycled glass countertops are really sharp but be careful in regards the recycled glass countertops that contain cement or concrete.   By many standards recycled glass countertops that are made using cement would not be considered eco-friendly.  Reclaimed wood pieces can make for an affordable eco-friendly countertop. With proper sealants old doors or other wood panels with character could become kitchen countertops.  Creating an eco-friendly backsplash might be the easiest thing to DIY in your modern eco-friendly kitchen.  If you can find an old pallet with nice patina you can create a reclaimed wood backsplash that’s unmatched.  Or if you’re the artistic type can try creating a backsplash out of recycled glass pieces and resin.  If you have some room in the budget for a kitchen backplash, you could consider eco-friendly panels made from recycled plastic or handmade tiles created from recycled porecelain tile.  Let’s not forget the floor!  Bamboo, cork, or reclaimed wood can make for beautiful eco-friendly kitchen floors.  Always check to see what’s under your current floor before you buy any materials, there could be an old wood floor underneath that can be brought back to life with some sanding and finish.  Another eco-friendly option in modern kitchen flooring would be marmoleum which is a non-toxic eco-friendly lineoleum made from bio waste and other recycled materials. Oh, and don’t forget some modern LED lighting, that always brightens up a modern eco-friendly kitchen.  Whatever your eco-friendly tastes we’re sure your eco-friendly kitchen will look great!  And the planet will thank you for it, thanks for reading!

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!

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!

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!

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…

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!

The non-toxic train! Sealants, Caulks, and Adhesives

Go train go!  Non toxic is a growing trend in our world and for very good reason.  In this blog we wanted to help make sense of why this trend is so important and how it connects to the building materials world.  You've probably heard non toxic quite a bit over the last handful of years or so, maybe even VOCs has entered the brainwaves a few times.   VOCs, volatile organic compounds, are the ugly compounds or chemicals that can be released even after installation.  Have you ever been in a new building and noticed that new building smell? That smell was actually a whole lot of VOCs, probably really unhealthy VOCs.  In building materials, formaldehyde (methanal) is probably the most well known VOC and it can typically be found through out our homes.  It's in ceiling tiles, wall boards, paints, sealants and adhesives in cabinetry, shelving and flooring.  It's a big deal because formaldehyde can be  slowly omitted into our air over time  with changes in temperature and humidity (also known as offgasing).  These types of VOCs are part of the reason indoor air quality can be significantly worse than outdoor air quality.  After poisoning our air quality for years many of the toxic items in our home end up in a landfill or even worse are burned.  Non toxic is a no brainer for anyone equipped with this knowledge but it isn't always realistic for everyone's budget.  We're working toward and looking forward to a day when non toxic doesn't mean really expensive.  If you can fit non toxic into the budget it's one of the the best ways to improve indoor air quality.

When it comes to building materials, sealants, caulks, and adhesives are on the map with non toxic options.  These finishes are often used all over the home especially during kitchen and bathroom remodeling.  Chemlink of Schoolcraft, Michigan has developed a line of high performance adhesives, sealants, and coatings that are completely non toxic and perform as well as traditional toxic products.  AFM (American Formulation & Manufacturing), of San Diego, CA is another eco-friendly manufacturer offering non toxic sealants and adhesives.  AFM also offers non toxic paints, primers, stains, and sealers.  We're happy to see some very established non toxic sealant manufacturers and expect some bigger names to add non toxic sealants, caulks, and adhesives to their product lines in the near future.  Thanks for reading!