A Sustainable Future
A Renewable Resource
Every building product we use comes form a natural resource. Among all the building materials available today, however, only wood products come from a renewable resource - the forest.
Steel, aluminium, plastic and concrete are frequently thought of as wood substitutes, and it is often assumed that using these products will help protect our forests. But we cannot grow more iron ore to make steel, bauxite to make aluminium, petroleum to make plastic, or limestone to make concrete. These materials are mined or extracted from the earth, never to be replaced. Even recycled wood substitutes contain large percentages of virgin, non-renewable materials.
Every time we use a product from a non-renewable resource, we are diminishing the earth's ability to sustain us. Wood products however are made form a resource that can be planted, harvested and planted again and again.
Biodegradable
Wood is biodegradable. When wood is no longer usable, it can be readily absorbed back into the earth with no environmental harm. Wood fibres turn into non-toxic dirt and enrich the soil as they decompose. On a building site, wood scrap can be chipped and composted immediately with no hauling and no land filling.
Wood substitutes, on the other hand, are not biodegradable. Materials such as concrete rubble are very difficult to recycle or dispose of. Steel and aluminium require massive amounts of energy to recycle. Plastics are burdened with toxic substances that make recycling hazardous and costly. Also, plastic is not biodegradable and will remain in a landfill for half a millennium.
Wood waste is not a serious problem and accounts for only a tiny percentage of landfill space by volume. Old wood products can be easily disposed of without worrying about toxic chemicals leaching into our drinking water and poisoning the earth.