[Greenbuilding] [BULK] Re: green building and plastics

Tue Jul 18 08:05:22 CDT 2006

Wow this looks really interesting.  Glueless joints that are heat fused.
No glue sniffing!  

I believe that the PEX systems in use now use mechanical joints
(compression fittings) which would also be glueless.  I can imagine that
heat fused joints might be more reliable, but harder to fix.  

The pipe I was using in the 1980's was called Quest.  Quest was quite
revolutionary, because it was one of the first flexible piping systems,
materials were cheap, it was freeze-proof, and widely available.
Unfortunately it broke down after 10-15 years of exposure to chlorinated
water.  There are two houses I helped plumb that are on unchlorinated
well water, that are still working fine after 20 years, but entire
subdivisions in chlorinated public water districts sprung leaks after a
few years.  Quest was sued off the planet, if I am not mistaken.  Any
new plastic pipe should be scrutinized for chlorine resistance.  

These two houses were old farm houses, with perennial pipe freezing
problems.  Quest would just expand when it froze, the water would be
shut off for a day or two until the sub-zero weather passed on, and then
thaw out.  This is despite all the heat tape and insulation we would
wrap around them.   They've gone through this for 20 years now without
bursting. 

-----Original Message-----
From: greenbuilding-bounces at listserv.repp.org
[mailto:greenbuilding-bounces at listserv.repp.org] On Behalf Of Leslie
Moyer
Sent: Tuesday, July 18, 2006 12:45 AM
To: GREENBUILDING at LISTSERV.REPP.ORG
Subject: [BULK] Re: [Greenbuilding] green building and plastics
Importance: Low

Nitya,

I don't know whether this will be helpful or not, but I saved this
article (below) from the NYTimes (and a follow-up editorial) as part of
my search into alternatives to PVC. As Lawrence said, an alternative to
PVC is a huge market opportunity. I have found this company advertising
an alternative to copper and PVC, though I haven't researched it
thoroughly: http://www.aquatherm-usa.com/ Looks like they import from
the same German company mentioned in this article (Fusiotherm).

******************

The New York Times - 06.03.2006

New York - Green House.How to Build a Low-PVC, Reduced-Plastic,
Polar-Bear-Sensitive House

By Florence Williams

If the greenest house is no house at all, what's the next best thing? 
For homeowners like Tony and Sally Grassi, ecologically responsible
construction isn't just about minimizing the immediate impact on the
environment (their new 3,000-square-foot house in midcoast Maine was
built on the site of a small hunting lodge) or energy consumption
(photovoltaics, or solar panels, will supply some of their energy
needs). It's about materials, especially plastics, adhesives and
additives.

'We wanted to push the envelope on things that green builders don't
always pay attention to,' says Tony Grassi, a 61-year-old retired
investment banker who was chairman of the Nature Conservancy for three
years. The Grassis were concerned not only with indoor air quality but
also with the impact of the manufacturing process on those who produced
the building materials - and the disposal of the byproducts of those
materials. Their biggest concern was PVC, otherwise known as polyvinyl
chloride, a cheap, hardy plastic used in everything from plumbing pipes
to electric conduit. 'PVC is just awful,' Grassi says. Its byproducts -
dioxin and other organochlorines - are carcinogenic, and PVC itself is
tough to recycle. But it was often difficult to find a substitute. The
Grassis and their architects, Matt Elliott and Dwayne Flynn of Elliott
Elliott Norelius Architecture, based in Blue Hill, Me., certainly tried.

One alternative, a special polypropylene tubing made without chlorine
for the well pipes - called Fusiotherm - came from Germany via Israel. 
But for the interior electric wiring, there were no good alternatives at
all.

The Grassis had better luck avoiding other chemicals. The house is
insulated with blown-in fiberglass, not the familiar fluffy pink stuff,
which contains formaldehyde. Formaldehyde is also found in fiberboard
and plywood, so those were out, too. (Though the Grassis did relent when
it came to certified low-formaldehyde plywood for the kitchen cabinets,
because no other material was durable enough.) The couple were equally
concerned about certain flame retardants - PBDE's - which they'd read
are released into the environment and eventually accumulate in the
tissues of polar bears living in the Arctic. All their furniture is
upholstered with PBDE-free fabric, and their mattress is stuffed with
organic cotton (naturally flame-resistant).

The Grassis also avoided copper, because 'copper mining is such a
horrible process,' Grassi says, and mines typically dump arsenic into
nearby streams. To replace interior copper water pipes, the Grassis
opted for PEX (cross-linked polyethylene) tubing, which is derived from
oil, a fact that, for some, would make it a poor replacement. 'The
trade-offs are driven by personal values,' he says. 'There is always a
greener alternative.'

Some of the Grassis' eco-measures were actually cost-effective, others
not at all. The PEX tubing was cheaper than copper, but the German
Fusiotherm pipes added $10,000 to the cost of the well. One big-ticket
item was the $85,000 10.9-kilowatt-hour solar array. At current energy
prices, 15 years would have to elapse before it would begin to pay for
itself. Overall, the Grassis figure their costs ran 12 percent higher
than conventional construction. But, Grassi says, it's worth it if it
begins 'to drive the market for better products.'

************************

http://www.healthybuilding.net/news/060309pvcnytimes.html

The New York Times On How (and why) to Build a Low-PVC, Reduced-Plastic,
Polar-Bear-Sensitive House

by Bill Walsh, National Coordinator
Healthy Building Network

March 9, 2006

Everyday we see more evidence that people who care about how materials
impact human health reject PVC plastic. [1] The latest news was
delivered with last Sunday's New York Times Magazine in the form of an
article bearing the headline "How to Build a Low-PVC, Reduced-Plastic,
Polar-Bear-Sensitive House." [2] This time it wasn't Firestone,
Wal-Mart, Kaiser Permanente or Microsoft taking a stand against PVC, it
was a retired investment banker in Maine.

The article opened by noting that "ecologically responsible construction
isn't just about minimizing the immediate impact on the environment . . 
. or energy consumption . . . . It's about materials, especially
plastics, adhesives and additives." That might come as news to the
owners of the green building movement's most recognized brands - the US
Green Building Council's (USGBC) LEED Rating System, and the
increasingly influential Green Globes auditing tool founded and marketed
in the US by plastics and timber industry groups.

The plastics industry has tied the USGBC in knots over the question of
whether PVC is or is not a green building material. The Council's last
word on the subject, a December 2004 draft report, [3] was that after
four years of analysis, it could not determine whether PVC was better or
worse than any other material. Virtually every non-industry affiliated
commenter criticized the report. The plastics industry applauded the
conclusion, and now spends big bucks to use the USGBC Draft Report as a
selling point for PVC. USGBC member companies and USGBC trade
associations suffer no consequence for circulating the draft that is
marked "DO NOT CITE" on every page, while members of the committee who
drafted the report are bound not to discuss it.

Not satisfied with their success at the USGBC, the plastics industry in
2005 funded the start up of the Green Globes building rating system as a
direct competitor to LEED - again without consequence as members in good
standing of the USGBC. Green Globes accepts the contention of the
American Plastics Council that all plastics are green building
materials.

PVC is a bellwether issue for the green building movement. Using junk
science and intimidation tactics, some of the nation's most
anti-environmental industry groups have paralyzed the green building
movement and driven a wedge between the movement's leadership and its
rank and file.

Tony Grassi, the 61-year-old retired investment banker who, along with
his wife Sally, was profiled by The New York Times Magazine, leapfrogged
most official green building criteria when they gave due consideration
to the health impacts associated with the manufacturing process and the
disposal of the byproducts of their building materials. As a result,
they carefully sought to avoid copper, formaldehyde, and the persistent
toxic chemicals used as flame retardants on fabrics and upholstery. 
According to the article, their "biggest concern" was PVC.

"PVC is just awful,", said Tony Grassi. "We wanted to push the envelope
on things that green builders don't always pay attention to." The
Grassis hoped that their materials choices would begin "to drive the
market for better products."

Unless the US green building movement pays closer attention to human
health concerns, that could be a very long drive. Two weeks before the
Grassi's story appeared in The New York Times, one of the world's
largest PVC manufacturer's boasted that home-improvement expenditures on
the worst plastic for the human health and the environment have
increased from 8 % to 30% since 1990 [4] - a trend that parallels the
growth of the US Green Building Council, founded in 1993.

HEALTHY BUILDING NEWS SOURCES

[1] PVC (also commonly called vinyl) refers to polyvinylchloride
plastic. Environmental and health groups consider PVC to be the worst
plastic for the environment because of the unique and devastating nature
of the health impacts associated with PVC manufacturing, use and
disposal. For more information see
http://www.healthybuilding.net/pvc/index.html

[2] Florence Williams, "How to Build A Low-PVC, Reduced Plastic,
Polar-Bear-Sensitive House," The New York Times Magazine, March 5, 2006,
p.92

[3] See HBN's analysis of "Assessment of Technical Basis for a
PVC-Related Materials Credit in LEED," 
http://www.healthybuilding.net/usgbc/index.html

[4] "Odds Are, Vinyl's Just Warming Up" Plastics News, February 13,
2006.

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