[Greenbuilding] Plybooboo

[Rob Tom]

Something that emerges out of this thread as to whether or not plyboo is  
Green or not is why there is even the need for Murricans to import lumber  
flooring all the way from China or elsewhere to supply their flooring  
needs, Green or otherwise.

Has the US so extensively raped it wealth of resources that it, like Japan  
needs to pillage the resources of poorer, overseas developing nations to  
satisfy its consumption habits ?

One of the first "Rules of Thumb" of building sustainably is that the  
materials for the building should come from within a 300 km radius of the  
building site.

If the locale doesn't have any trees or salvageable lumber within that  
radius, then perhaps consideration should be given to a non-lumber  
flooring choice that is locally sourced ?

I also think that a big part of the problem is trying to order "Green"  
products by simply pulling them out of a catalogue or such-like.

I think that a good rule of thumb is that the further one is removed from  
the source, the less Green it's going to be. By "source" in this case I  
mean the sawyer and the trees.

For instance, the last time I bought a whack of lumber (red oak), it was  
 from a sawyer who hitches up two of his draught horses to go into his  
woods to haul out the saw logs cut from trees that he felt were suitable  
for harvesting. The logs were band-sawn on his property and then stickered  
to dry in his sheds for a few years before selling. A nice shade of Green  
I'd say.


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Rob Tom
Kanata, Ontario, Canada
<A r c h i L o g i c   at  c h a f f y a h o o   dot   c a >
winnow the chaff from my edress in your reply