[Greenbuilding] Alternatives to Pressure Treated Wood

[Alan Abrams]

>
>There is cedar or redwood or ironwood/Ipe or whatever else you might
>find, none of which (well, maybe Ipe) could be considered sustainable
>(the Ipe distributors say it's grown sustainably, rainforest activists
>typically say there's no such thing as a sustainably grown rainforest
>tree, last I heard...). 

FWIW, Ipe has been almost unobtainable in the DC area this fall...  

Coincidentally, it had been priced at roughly the same cost as Trex, which
we prefer to Ipe for the same reasons raised above--despite ipe's aesthetic
virtues and greater rigidity.  

I'm aware that there are composite products that are reputed to have higher
portions of post consumer recycled content than Trex--but the brand x
products seem to come and go--whereas Trex has reliable distribution, lots
of sizes, proven performance, etc.

-Alan Abrams