By creating oxygen and storing carbon, trees help counter climate change and offer some compensation for the environmental damage of our modern lifestyles. Trees are good for the land; they can help prevent flooding and soil erosion and regulate water and nutrient cycles.

Wood is one of the most sustainable and environmentally favourable construction materials available. This is due to its; absorption of carbon dioxide while growing, adaptability as a product and recyclability or use as a biofuel. Wood is the most eco friendly material we use.

A sustainable material is one that: Does not deplete non-renewable (natural) resources. Has no adverse impact on the environment when used.

Wood is 100% sustainable: The process of manufacturing timber uses substantially less fossil fuel energy per unit volume than steel, concrete, or aluminium; meaning that timber has a very low carbon footprint. Since timber is a natural element, it is non-toxic and safe to handle.

Which woods are most sustainable? Timber is usually classified as either hardwood, from broad leafed trees like beech and oak, or softwood from conifers like pine and fir. Simply because they’re replaceable, fast-growing species like pine trees tend to be more sustainable than slow-growing trees like oak.

Cotton’s most prominent environmental impacts result from the use of agrochemicals (especially pesticides), the consumption of water, and the conversion of habitat to agricultural use.

Cotton. Although it is a natural fiber, conventional cotton is far from environmentally friendly. Cotton is mainly produced in dry and warm regions, but it needs a lot of water to grow.

Yes, cotton is a renewable resource because it can be planted and harvested year after year.

Polymers from renewable resources include among the others: poly-saccharides, such as cellulose, starch, chitosan, lignin and proteins, like wool, silk and gelatin, oils, and microbial poly (ester)s, such as PHAs. Polymers derived from renewable resources can be broadly classified according to the method of production.

Finite materials are resources that cannot be created or produced, once the original stores are depleted, or those that are used up at a faster rate than nature can replenish them.

Wood is the only building material whose amount is constantly increasing. By using wood, the consumption of non-renewable materials can be reduced and/or completely avoided.

Nonrenewable energy resources include coal, natural gas, oil, and nuclear energy. Once these resources are used up, they cannot be replaced, which is a major problem for humanity as we are currently dependent on them to supply most of our energy needs.

official confirmed that it’s degrading so fast, we might run out of this natural resource in about 60 years, according to Scientific American. Global warming, deforestation, and chemical farming all contribute to the destruction of soil, and, essentially, we’re using soil faster than we can replenish it.

Air and water are renewable natural resources too. They don’t regrow like trees or have babies like animals. But, they are always being renewed.

Air is a renewable resource because it can be restored by natural means faster than it is consumed by humans.

Soil is a non-renewable resource. Its preservation is essential for food security and our sustainable future.

Renewable resources include biomass energy (such as ethanol), hydropower, geothermal power, wind energy, and solar energy. Biomass refers to organic material from plants or animals. This includes wood, sewage, and ethanol (which comes from corn or other plants).

Soil is a non-renewable resource.

Plants are a renewable resource because they grow quickly and can replace themselves at fast rates.

Renewable resources can be replaced by natural processes as quickly as humans use them. Nonrenewable resources exist in fixed amounts. They can be used up. Examples include fossil fuels such as coal.

Trees are a natural resource that are renewed. Since 1940, we have grown more trees each year in America than we have used for making paper, houses, books and other things we use every day.

Renewable resources are solar energy, wind energy, geothermal energy, biofuels, cultivated plants, biomass, air, water and soil. In contrast, non-renewable resources are those that are available to us in limited quantities, or those that are renewed so slowly that the rate at which they are consumed is too fast.

The most popular renewable energy sources currently are:

• Solar energy.
• Wind energy.
• Hydro energy.
• Tidal energy.
• Geothermal energy.
• Biomass energy.

Natural resources are usually either renewable or non-renewable. The former refer to those resources that can renew themselves in time. These include living resources like forests or non-living ones like wind, water, solar energy. Mineral resources are non-renewable.

Wood is known to be one of the most naturally renewable energy sources, which means it will have less of an impact on the environment compared to other materials.

Which woods are most sustainable? Timber is usually classified as either hardwood, from broad leafed trees, such as Beech and Oak, or softwood from conifers like Pine and Fir. Simply because they’re replaceable, fast-growing species like Pine trees tend to be more sustainable than slow-growing trees like Oak.

Furniture, floors and doors made out of wood require less energy to produce than aluminium or plastic, and on top of that wood continues to store carbon for years, the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said. Even recycling plastic is not as environmentally friendly as some people may think.

Perhaps the most prominent reason why plastic lumber is stronger than wood is that it is completely water-resistant. Many of the structures that you might craft from wood are meant for outdoor use. They are consequently exposed to precipitation, condensation, humidity, and sometimes direct contact with bodies of water.

There’s still much debate on the matter, and the FDA’s official opinion is that both wood and plastic are safe so long as they’re cleaned well and replaced often. If both wood and plastic are prone to bacteria if not properly cared for and replaced, it comes down to preference and longevity.

Manufacturers claim plastic lumber is more environmentally-friendly and requires less maintenance than wood/plastic composites or rot-resistant wood. Unlike wood-plastic composite lumber, plastic lumber is 100% recyclable after its original intended use.

Recycled Plastic Lumber They are expensive to maintain and replace. Chemicals that are used to weatherproof wood can leach into the ground and water, polluting the environment.

How long will your products last? Our mineral filled composite plastic lumber will last forever as evidenced by our warranty which protects against rotting, cracking, splitting and peeling for a minimum of 50 years. Bear Board comes with a 50 year limited warranty.

Wood-filled RPL is made of plastic mixed with sawdust or other recycled fiber, usually a mix of 50 percent polyethylene (primarily low-density polyethylene or LDPE) and 50 percent sawdust or other recycled fiber. Advantages. Fewest voids, best traction, best paint-ability, greater surface roughness.

These are the different types of recycled plastic lumber in production today.

• High-Density Polyethylene Recycled Plastic Lumber.
• Wood-Filled Recycled Plastic Lumber.
• Commingled Recycled Plastic Lumber.
• Fiber-Reinforced Recycled Plastic Lumber.

Cost. Both plastic lumber and composite wood-plastic lumber cost more than wood decking. You will recoup a large portion of these upfront costs since plastic deck lumber is so low-maintenance compared to wood and likely will have a longer lifespan.

The Largest Selection of 100% recycled plastic lumber sizes, colors, and grades available in the marketplace available at Markstaar today! Maintenance free, 50 year warranty, with no wood by-products.

Recycled plastic lumber and recycled timber plastics, also known as recycled plastic wood, is made from taking useless plastic rubbish, and after it has been processed carefully, using 66% less energy than is used in virgin plastic production, we make something both aesthetically pleasing and useful.

Plastics are strong, durable, waterproof, lightweight, easy to mould, and recyclable – all key properties for construction materials. But all polymers are, technologically, 100% recyclable.

The seven types of plastic

• 1) Polyethylene Terephthalate (PETE) Can it be recycled?
• 2) High-Density Polyethylene (HDPE) Can it be recycled?
• 3) Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC – U) Can it be recycled?
• 5) Polypropylene (PP) Can it be recycled?
• 6) Polystyrene or Styrofoam (PS) Can it be recycled?
• 7) OTHER. Can it be recycled?

What can they become? When they are recycled they can make new bottles and containers, plastic lumber, picnic tables, lawn furniture, playground equipment, recycling bins and more. We use plastic bags to carry home groceries. They keep our bread and other food fresh.

If you use these plastic bottles as “bricks”, you have to use something to bind them together. If a house built with plastic bottles catches fire, it will burn out of control, releasing highly toxic gasses such as dioxins, furans, mercury and polychlorinated biphenyls into the atmosphere.

These tiny particles – microplastics – pollute the local environment: and they do that for ever. Also, their breakdown releases many chemicals that were used in the manufacture, and some of these are very toxic to the environment.

Remember – the things you put in your ecobrick can’t be recycled or won’t break down, so be sure not to include metal, paper, card, food waste or glass. Weigh your ecobrick. You need to make sure that your ecobrick is packed as tightly as possible to make it really strong.

It also helps to conserve energy, reduce the overall cost of construction and hence in this project, an attempts made to manufacture the plastic sand bricks by utilizing the waste plastics. Building materials like bricks, concrete block, tiles, etc. are popularly used in construction.

Several researchers have studied the use of plastic waste in concrete. In this study, a concrete mix with a 28-day compressive strength of 35 MPa was prepared, and then natural sand was replaced by 10%–50% of crushed recycled plastic to determine the impact of substitution levels on concrete properties.

Abhishek Banerjee, 22, a construction engineering student at Jadavpur University, has been shortlisted for this year’s Young Champions of the Earth Award, which is organised by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP). The brick, called the “Plastiqube”, is intended to address two big problems in India.

Using super-heated water, the plastic is then simply compressed and shaped into durable bricks. The bricks require no glues or adhesives for use, and the non-toxic production process produces 95% lower Greenhouse Gas Emissions (GhG) compared to concrete blocks and have very high thermal and acoustic insulation.

“The product is almost five to seven times stronger than the concrete and this is because of the basic material structure of the brick. It is made up of recycled plastic. Plastic is fibrous in nature and therefore the brick ends up having stronger compression strength.

• Sun-dried bricks: Unburnt bricks or sundried bricks are the first and most basic example of bricks.
• Burnt clay bricks:
• Fly ash bricks:
• Concrete Bricks:
• Engineering Bricks:
• Sand lime or calcium silicate Bricks:
• Porotherm Smart Bricks:
• Fire Bricks:

The innovative local company managed to patent its system of bricks and pillars made of recycled plastic, which is then put together like Lego pieces in a construction system that lets you build houses up to two stories high in five days.