One of the things we noticed when we plugged in our new chest fridge was the amount of condensation we were getting inside the fridge and how useless the little drain hole in the bottom was. To be fair it IS supposed to be only for draining water when defrosting…
It got so bad that we were actually getting a little bit of rust forming at the seams inside the compartment! Needless to say this wasn’t a very healthy turn of events for either us (possible mold) or the fridge (rust).
I got to looking around the internet and turned to the home brew forums to see what the kegerator guys who led me to the Brewer’s Edge controller had done for their keg chest fridge’s when condensation happened. Many said you would have to wipe the inside down and eventually replace the appliance when rust ate through the coolant tubes, but others said they had good luck with a product called Damprid that sucked moisture out of the air. Exploring further it turned out that Damprid is merely calcium chloride which is used for road salts in some places and for chlorine free pool treatment as well and can be had at much lower prices in large quantities than you pay for the name brand products.
I went out to Home Depot and found a 1KG bag for $6 and made a holder out of two ice cream buckets inside each pother with holes in the bottom of the top one to let the brine that develops when the calcium chloride absorbs moisture drain into the lower bucket. Within a few days of putting it into the fridge the beads of moisture that coated the inside of the fridge were gone and all surfaces were bone dry!
It seems there are many lessons to learn from those inventive home brewers!
(cross-posted at greenspree.ca)
Where does rubber come from anyway?
Unlike money, rubber actually does grow on trees. That is, naturally occurring latex does. Natural rubber or latex begins its lifecycle when the Para rubber tree is tapped for sap, not unlike how our Quebequois friends bring us maple syrup.
Yet, the majority of rubber products you and I are familiar with are made not from natural latex, but from synthetic rubber. Synthetic rubber is derived from petroleum and other minerals, and is made into tires, gaskets, seals, moldings, carpet backing, bouncing balls, hoses, and wet suits for starters. (IISRP)
But, according to the Minnesota Building Materials Database, synthetic rubber has a high embodied energy. Embodied energy is a measure of the total energy required for sourcing or extracting raw material, material
processing, manufacture and even transportation to the end material’s point of use. In a nutshell, look for materials with a lower embodied energy when possible.
What About Recycled Rubber?
Logically, when you cut out the raw material extraction phase of a product’s lifecycle, the energy savings are fantastic: recycling rubber rather than producing it from scratch can yield a 70% energy savings (Mumma, 1995)! While it’s true that collecting, processing, and remanufacturing recyclable materials takes a massive amount of energy, it’s safe to say that the benefits and savings are worthwhile.
Still, no matter how hard you try you can’t deny the fact that a recycled product retains many of the characteristics from its raw ‘material of origin’. In other words, this recycled content apple doesn’t fall too far from the tree.
Durability
While a great deal of rubber’s ecofeatures appear fairly tarnished (high embodied energy, non-renewable materials, use of toxins and pollutants in manufacture), one cannot deny the many applications it enables. That we all wear rubber on the soles of our shoes, nevermind those who count on it to run marathons, is a statement about its durability.
There are times when durability trumps biodegradability, and vice versa. It all depends on the use of the product and your personal values. If product A has a higher environmental impact than product B, but lasts three times longer and requires minimal maintenance, it may indeed be ‘greener’ than the alternative. By the same token, if a product is intended to last just a short while and can be disposed of responsibly (recycled, or composted perhaps), the less durable but biodegradeable option likely makes the most sense.
Recyclability
Rubber is such a widely used material and has long been recycled. Yet within the waste stream, rubber is problematic. Stockpiled tires create ideal breeding grounds for mosquitoes, which can carry diseases like West Nile Virus. Incinerated tires and stockpiled tires that have ignited release toxic chemicals and pollutants into air, soil, and water (WRG).
Rubber recycling effectively saves energy and raw materials, while preventing the sorry side effects of incineration and ‘tire dumps’, and making use of an abundant material with an established market.
Recycled Rubber Tiles and Pavers
Given the weight and friction that tires can withstand, it’s no shocker to see rubber’s next incarnation as a series of patterns under foot. Ecoflex is a line of Canadian-made 100% recycled rubber bricks, pavers, and surfacing materials.
Though not necessarily new, recycled rubber bricks are gaining ground in Canadian yards front and back, at the pool’s edge, on driveways, on decks and patios, and on stair treads. With Canada’s collective eco-consciousness in bloom, Ecoflex’s manufacturer Champagne Edition offers 9 styles of brick and interlocking tile in 6 colours for a total of 48 uniquely recycled choices for any yard.
Aside from the flexibility to customize brick patterns and colours to the character of your home, Ecoflex products boast an exceptional density and durability. That and they’re a lot easier to install than their heavier concrete block or ceramic brick counterparts. And while you can return them to the factory for recycling when you’re done with them, you’re not likely to need to since they’ll be in such good shape that they could better be reused and tread on elsewhere.
Champagne Edition is no newcomer to recycling, having churned out Ecoflex bricks and tiles for the past 11-12 years of its 16-year existence. For every 100 square feet of brick, this 2004 Emerald Award winner pumps new life into up to 20 car and light truck tires. And, I’m told by Sales Spokesperson Jim Hills that the glue in the product becomes inert once set, so not to worry about the glue itself off-gassing.
Environmentally speaking, Ecoflex products are a fine choice, especially if you live in Western Canada due to shorter shipping distances. Compare this with similar products made in China. They are Canadian-made, 100% recycled, durable, reusable and recyclable. Their embodied energy is far lower than non-recycled options to boot. Interlocking tile panels range between $5.44 and $7.50 per square foot, and the z-bricks ring in at $8-11 per square foot. See the Ecoflex dealer listing for sources from BC to Ontario.
| Ecofeatures |
Details |
| Recycled or Reclaimed Content |
100% recycled content |
| Recyclability |
Yes |
| Renewable Content |
No |
| Low Toxicity |
No. Glue inert upon setting. Contains <0.5 PPM/ml Tetrachloroethylene based on ASTM testing. |
| Production Location |
Legal, Alberta |
| Water-saving |
N/A |
| Energy-saving |
Lower embodied energy due to recycled content. Product durability prevents premature product replacement related energy consumption. |
| Production Impact |
Data not available |
| Corporate Social Responsibility |
No. Employees do get benefits. |
| Independent Certifications |
No |
Contact:
Jim Hills
Box 29, Site 13, RR#1
Legal, Alberta T0G 1L0
(866) 326-3539 (Toll-Free)
info@eco-flex.com
References
International Institute of Synthetic Rubber Producers (IISRP), Retrieved July 5, 2008 from http://www.iisrp.com/index.html
Minnesota Building Materials Database (MBMD), Retrieved July16, 2008 from http://www.buildingmaterials.umn.edu/09654_health.html
Mumma, T. (1995) Home Energy Magazine Online, Reducing the Embodied Energy of Buildings. Retrieved July 16, 2008.
Western Rubber Group (WRG). Background of Tire Recycling. Retrieved July 16, 2008.
*Note: All photos above supplied by Champagne Edition and posted with permission.
Nestled within Green Living Ideas’ collection of practical resources is a top notch piece on why air conditioning is best used as a last resort, if at all. It echoes a few concerns that I’ve been ruminating as this summer steams along.
Beyond an overall discomfort with consuming massive amounts of energy to rid our homes of heat (also energy) while warming the climate in the process, the Eco Air Conditioning piece points out the social and health costs associated with air conditioning systems, and reminds readers of both simple and technical solutions to an overheated home.
Still, it amazes me that as we control our indoor environments, we forget that heat is energy. Why have we not yet found a way to harvest this heat for domestic water heating and other applications? Let’s make like a martial arts master and ‘harness the strength and momentum of our opponent for our own benefit’.
While we await the next generation of heat harvesting-cooling technology, how about we embrace non-technical solutions that don’t rely on energy consumption to kick heat out of the house? Visit Green Living Ideas for the full article.
Maple Leaf Metals is located at 4510 - 68 Avenue. They are the place to bring scrap metals of all kinds. I had heard that they pay the best money for the scrap, and overall I was happy with my MLM experience.
Last week I borrowed the Habitat Studios truck and loaded up the metallic material that I collected out of the house that stood at 9805 - 84th Avenue.
The two natural gas ranges, furnace, dryer, and hot water heater have no scrap value. That’s probably because they would require some labour to take apart. So I took those to the Eco Station:
Tristan from Habitat Studios is standing in front of the truck. Major appliances are accepted for free at Edmonton Eco Stations
Then I loaded up all the other metals. It’s important to keep the copper somewhat separated, because it’s worth the most. And yes, copper wiring counts, even with the insulating plastic on it.
Galvanized steel water pipes, cast iron drain pipes, natural gas lines, furnace ducting, and most importantly, copper wire and piping.
Off to Maple Leaf Metals:
They inspect the metal that you have, and then direct you into a warehouse if there’s anything worth sorting out. We pulled out the copper wiring and pipes and separated them into bins, because they pay a different rate for each. Then, they weighed the entire truck on a scale, and sent me to the yard. It reminded me of what hell might look like:
I kept expecting one of the yard monsters to begin eating me. I’m always uncomfortable on construction sites - a nerd in a pickup truck is like a fish out of water. The workers directed me to a big machine with a magnet on it. Once I backed up, the operator began pulling the scrap metal out of the truck. Here’s the view looking back from the front seat:
Magnetic Metal Picker Upper
Payment
Once they had the scrap metal (as in, the non-copper metal), they weighed the truck again to determined how many pounds I had given them. I went to the office for my big payday:
- copper pipe: 11 pounds at about $2.30/pound
- copper wire: 39 pounds at about $0.75/pound (approximate I need to find the receipt and update this post)
- scrap metal: 1000 pounds at $0.035/pound
I walked out with $85.95 cash money! Woohoo! With all my labour included, I made $6-$7/hour taking that metal out.
What the heck though - this isn’t my day job after all, and I did good: 1050 pounds of materials didn’t get landfilled, and a lot of energy was saved by recycling metal instead of mining it from scratch.
(cross posted at www.greenEdmonton.ca )
I was relieved to see the the house at 9805 - 84th Avenue get torn down a couple of weeks ago. Once it was gone, I figured, I wouldn’t be obsessively compelled to recycle it anymore.
The day before the tear down, though, Peter Amerongen started talking about reusing the foundation bricks as a mass wall inside the Mill Creek NetZero Home (MCNZH). I had raised the idea a few times previously, and he hadn’t seemed all that enthusiastic, so I was going to let it go. He’s the expert at reusing old material, after all.
The night of the demolition, this is what the site looked like:
We had asked the track hoe operator to leave as many foundation bricks as possible, and he obliged:
So I took out the wheel barrow and got to work. The grey clay bricks from the foundation are in great shape. When first inspecting bricks in the home for reusability, I was disappointed because the chimney bricks were really crumbly. However, Peter has since explained that I was pulling the worst-quality bricks from the home - the bricks in the chimney (the exterior portion, anyway) are constantly being subjected to big temperature swings.
Hauling grey clay bricks by wheelbarrow.
The mass wall will be bathed in sunshine during the heating season, right behind the MCNZH’s wood burning stove. With Peter’s help, I saved 4000-5000 pounds of bricks from the old house. It’s significant because the mass in solar houses can be extremely energy intensive. Most of ours comes from concrete, which is a huge contributor to climate change.
So I feel good about these bricks. We saved diesel fuel not hauling them to the landfill, and they will act as batteries for solar and wood energy for years and years to come.
(cross posted at www.greenEdmonton.ca )
On July 30th, 2008, we demolished the 92-year-old house at 9805- 84th Avenue.
The awesome power of the trackhoe was immediately apparent, as it effortlessly tore through the front wall of the house. Given that we can dispose of such a huge (historically speaking) building in such a short time, it’s going to be a while before it becomes worth it properly recycling these buildings. Hmmm, should we spend 300 person hours and very little fuel taking this house apart, or should we spend 15 person hours and burn off 300 litres of diesel? It’s a no-brainer, really.
Not to get all political on you are anything, but that’s why a carbon tax like the one proposed by Stephane Dion is such a great thing. It would make the human labour in the above question cheaper, and the diesel fuel more expensive (okay, not in Dion’s version, but a true carbon tax would affect diesel and gas). Then, the weeks of effort that I put into saving the materials in the house would make more economic sense.
Here are some more pictures of the trackhoe doing in two hours what I couldn’t do in two months:
Sad to see the old girl go, really. A lot of memories were made there. We just don’t have the luxury of keeping her going though. Not anymore.
(cross posted at www.greenEdmonton.ca )
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