Encountering Concrete Examples: 16

Right now, John is in North Carolina for two reasons. First, he's there for his mother's 88th birthday party. Some of the family got together today and celebrated. Happy Birthday, Mom! I'm sorry I couldn't be there. I'll bet the farm is beautiful right now. We still have snow on the ground in Connecticut, even though this was a freakishly snow-free winter.

The other reason for the visit is that this Thursday, the NC State class will be presenting their first stage proposals and we've been invited to attend. These will be proposals for conventional development. The rest of the term will be about preparing proposals for green development. It's quite exciting, getting to this stage. I hope to be able to report back next weekend on what John learns.

For today, though, I wanted to talk more about --yes!--countertops. Mark asked last week about concrete countertops. I know these are becoming quite trendy and I wanted to take a look and see: are they environmentally friendly? From what I've read, I think the answer is yes and no.

Apparently, the culprit in concrete is Portland Cement. Portland Cement, named after the Isle of Portland in southern England, is the binding agent in concrete. It isn't that the Portland Cement is environmentally unfriendly when it's in place in the countertop. It's the process of making the Portland Cement that's the problem. It uses a lot of resources and produces a large amount of greenhouse gases. But, it seems you can work part way around that by making concrete with half Portland Cement and half Fly Ash, a by-product of coal combustion. The claims are that it even makes the concrete more resistant to wear and staining. Here's a link to an article about slag cement.

This is one more case that points out how difficult it can be to decide what's truly green and what isn't. You have to look at the whole picture, from start to finish, and take into account all the energy and material costs that go into making a product--and its components. You also need to give some thought to what happens when an item becomes broken. Can it be fixed in an environmentally inexpensive way? Or does the first crack, tear or other breakdown mean nasty repairs, or worse, replacement. It's tempting when a product is cheap to simply toss it and get a new one when you're tired of it. That doesn't tend to be the case with something like countertops, but still, it's worth thinking about.

More about Countertops--From Paper: 15

After last week's post about counter tops, I wanted to know more about what the choices are, so I started looking around. One of the interesting things I found was a product called shetkaSTONE. (That's how the manufacturer writes the name.) It's a non-petroleum based solid surface counter material that's made from recycled paper. They claim to use 100% pre- and post-consumer waste materials, which is a great idea given that paper accounts for something like 40% of the solid waste in the United States. Any waste produced in the shetkaSTONE manufacturing process is just fed right back in. The same is true of shetkaSTONE products that are being disposed of.

Phone books, waxed paper, glossy magazines, even plant fibers and cloth--they're all used in making shetkaSTONE. And you can install an undermount sink with these countertops! Now, that my idea of great news. The one big regret I have about our current kitchen, which we completely remodeled about 8 years ago, is that the sink isn't an undermount. Not only is it a pain in the neck, but the water collects around the edge, and that means more cleaning with environmentally unfriendly cleaners.

ShetkaSTONE comes in a big range of colors, and you can learn more about it right at their own site. If this sounds like an ad, it isn't. I never heard of the stuff until today.

Sometimes the Best Choice is Counter-intuitive: 14

We've remodeled more than one kitchen. In fact, we're sort of famous in our own little circle for taking on major remodeling jobs, starting up just fine, going great guns until we're about 90% finished and then taking a long time to finish that last 10%. And here's the best part--as soon as we finish, we move. Not on purpose, but it works out that way.

We're really into colorful tile countertops, which are somewhat out of style these days. Granite is now the thing for counters. And builders and designers often promote it as somehow "in tune" with the earth, a natural choice for green living. But in fact, when you think about it, granite isn't earth friendly at all. Oh, it's earth friendly enough when it's sitting in the earth. The problem arises when you drag a huge chunk of it into your house--probably from halfway around the world.

First of all, granite has to be mined, and digging a humongous hole in the land and removing the rock leaves behind, at best, a major scar. It can also upset the surrounding ecology in ways that depend upon the details of the granite's (former) location. Well, you might say, you have to break some eggs to make an omelet. But how many eggs and how important is the omelet?

And talk about non-renewable. Not much in the way of new granite is springing up these days. Although to be fair, not much of the stuff we need to make solid surface counters--oil--is popping up, either.

But, then there's the shipping. Is it coming from a few hundred miles away? That's not great. But is it coming from, say, China to New Jersey? Think of the fossil-fuel cost of shipping this massive material to millions of kitchens throughout the United States. It seems that when you examine it, some natural things may be better off left where they are--in nature--unless there's a really good reason not to.

One of the interesting, newer alternatives that has caught my eye is recycled glass. You can even get that granite-y look, if you want to, although to be honest, it's not to my taste. Kitchens filled with granite always look like mausoleums to me. I really like the Medici Chapel in Florencebut I don't particularly want my kitchen to look like that, anymore than I want my living room ceiling to look like the Sistine Chapel. And while we're on the subject, I'm not at all fond of the current style in ceramic tile that makes everyone's floor and bathroom counter look like something out of Pompeii, but that's another topic for another day.

Recycled glass sounds like a great alternative. The number of styles available can be endless. It certainly isn't porous, it won't burn and it doesn't vent itself of various noxious gases after you install it. The next time we need to redo a kitchen, it's definitely on my list. Sounds great for my kitchen. Then, while I'm cooking, I can hum ...lookin' through a glass on-ion... with real feeling.

With a wink to Lennon-McCartney for that one.