Sustainable Design Update

Syndecrete – Recycled Content Tiles by Syndesis Inc.

We have been specifying Recycled Content Construction Materials to  improve the overall environmental footprint of our buildings since we opened our doors in 1992.  Recycled Content materials require less energy to produce and use less virgin raw materials.  We have even designed buildings where every material in the building had some recycled content (except for glass in light bulbs and a few other very small items).

From BuildingGreen.com:

From an environmental standpoint, post-consumer is preferable to pre-consumer recycled content, because post-consumer recycled materials are more likely to be diverted from landfills. For most construction product categories, there is currently no set standard for the percentage of recycled content required to qualify as a “Recycled Content Construction Material” but such standards are in the works.

Industrial waste is also considered a type of recycled feedstock.  Examples include iron-ore slag used to make mineral wool insulation, fly ash used to make concrete, and PVC scrap from pipe manufacture used to make shingles. Usually excluded from this category is the use of scrap within the same manufacturing process from which it was generated—material that would typically have gone back into the manufacturing process anyway.

This entry was posted on Monday, February 5th, 2007 at 1:35 pm and is filed under Architecture, Green Building Materials, Sustainability. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.