WW@TH: Shroom to Grow: Home-Grown Insulation Gets Fungi

It’s reader-mail time! Here’s one from Jasmine:

Dear Chekhov,

I have noticed as the year goes on that more and more of my double-paned windows are getting condensation on the inside as the constant expanding and contracting of the glass due to sun exposure causes the vacuum seal to deteriorate. Is there anything I can do short of replacing the windows? I would love to be able to repair them and avoid sending all of the windows to the landfill. If they cannot be repaired is there a way to recycle windows?

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Photo by Springsun, under a Creative Commons license. Lordy, I love this house.

Good to know! From the May/June 2007 issue of Sierra:

An energy-efficient mortgage saves energy and money—and increases your buying power. A household with a monthly income of $5,000 can afford a $227,300 mortgage at 6.25 percent interest, according to the Federal Citizen Information Center. With an energy-efficient mortgage, however, the same household may qualify for a loan about $16,000 larger because its utility bills will be lower.¹

Go to energystar.gov and search for “energy-efficient mortgage.”

¹The magazine quotes a real-estate agent in Madison, Wisconsin, who says, “The average monthly heating bill for an old house downtown is $250, compared with $50 for an Energy Star home. We had a young couple who wanted to live in a place where they could walk or bike to work. But they didn’t know if they could afford th energy bills for an old home. Our green mortgage enabled them to buy downtown.”

I’ve just updated my post on low- or zero-VOC paints to include Green Planet Paints and YOLO Colorhouse’s new baby line. Because the times, I like to keep up with.

Photo by Martha Stewart Living

The January 2007 issue of Martha Stewart Living has an extremely comprehensive feature on how to clean your kitchen, from oven racks to your toaster’s crumb tray, chemical-free, with such household staples as baking soda and lemon juice. I like the fact that this story isn’t being touted as being particularly “green” or “eco” but is just what it is—the best way of keeping your home clean and healthy for the people (and critters) you love … or at least tolerate. (Treehugger blogged about Shaklee’s Get Clean starter kit of concentrated, nontoxic, biodegradable cleaning supplies that might be of further interest to some, as well.)

Also in the issue is a look at photographer Bill Abranowicz and family’s environmentally friendly ski house in the Catskill Mountains, built with sustainable building materials and with energy-saving features in mind. Take an online video tour of their home on MarthaStewart.com, and the explore some ideas you can use to make your home more energy-efficient.

Related articles:
1. Chemical Pollution Harms Kids’ Brains
2. Hub’s Guest Review: Seventh Generation Laundry Liquid Detergent
3. Eco-Me Home
4. Vinegar: Disinfectant of Champions
5. Test Kitchen Witch
6. Eulogy for Swiffer
7. Maybe Baby: Chemicals & Kids

Photo by Stephen Toner/Getty Images

From the Chicago Tribune: “The demand for cheap Chinese goods is driving destructive logging around the world, threatening livelihoods and dividing fragile nations.”

Night and day, the timber ships reach this Yangtze River port, one of the world’s busiest clearinghouses for logs from every corner of the globe: Southeast Asia, the Amazon, Russia, the Congo.

Soon, this wood will be yours.

It will be your hardwood floor and your coffee table, your bedroom dresser and your plywood—all stamped with the most successful label of our time: Made in China.

In less than a decade, China has transformed the global timber trade, importing more wood each year than any country in history and quadrupling the amount of wood products it ships around the globe.

And no one is consuming more of it than Americans. U.S. shoppers have become the world’s best customers of low-cost Chinese flooring, furniture and plywood, buying 10 times as much as a decade ago.

You can trace just one log’s journey to the port at Zhangjiagang from 3,000 miles of the Pacific across to Papua New Guinea, which “nearly abandoned logging until China came along.” The article tracks the log to the nation’s remote northwest province of Sanduan, where “millions in timber profits and payments have left children without shoes and schools without plumbing.” Then the log’s trail ends at its origin: a specific patch of forest where “the torn landscape of logging has left a tribal leader unsure [of] where to hunt for food and fearful for the future.” (And this is in addition to landslides due to soil erosion, as well as greenhouse gases from deforestation and the loss of our “carbon sinks,” both of which further contribute to global warming.)

Besides the socio-economic reasons for why we should care about where our wood comes from—and how responsibly it was harvested—is the fact that forests are our planet’s richest stores of biodiversity. The article continues:

Such tropical rain forests cover barely 6 percent of the planet but hold 50 percent of all the known organisms on Earth. Half of the world’s tropical forests have been felled already, leaving researchers to speculate how many species are going extinct before they are discovered.

That prospect makes New Guinea even more of a treasure in the lucrative world of biomedical research. Tropical forests hold unique value for researchers who rely on new genetic ingredients for cures and vaccines. By one count, no less than 40 percent of all prescriptions written in the U.S. are for drugs derived from plants, animals and microorganisms.

Loggers in Papua New Guinea are cutting so fast that experts calculate that the rest of its accessible forests will be cut down within 16 years.

“Those are some of the finest remaining forests in the tropical world,” said American biologist Bruce Beehler, who has made more than 40 research trips to New Guinea.

“If you take just 1 hectare [2 1/2 acres] of it, it probably has thousands of species living there—plants, animals and other life-forms—that haven’t been described by science. So we don’t even know what’s in that box that is being meddled with.”

Related articles:
1. Logging Decimates Africa’s Forests
2. Mail Call: Toxic Wood
3. Bring Your Ever-Lovin’ Own
4. It’s Getting Hot in Here: Act Now

Further resources:
1. Forestry Stewardship Council (FSC certification assures you that your product was made with wood from sustainably managed forests)
2. Sustainable Forestry Initiative
3. Co-op America’s Woodwise program

Illo by Ideal Bite

Chew on this! Last week was Home Improvement Week at Ideal Bite, which ran a great series on eco-friendly, health-friendly, and sustainable sources for flooring, cabinetry, countertops, and more:

1. Paint: Nothing to Sniff At
“There’s just nothing quite like watching paint dry. But unless you’re the type who likes to inhale fumes, for your next paint job, go for naturally vibrant paints that won’t leave you woozy.”

2. Totally Floored
“Want to green your home from the ground up? Then floor it with eco-options like recycled carpeting or bamboo: materials that are good looking and good for the earth.”

3. Appearances Can Be Deceiving: Cabinets
“‘Appearances can be deceiving,’ [our fifth-grade teacher] Mrs. Klein always used to say, and it absolutely holds true for the perfectly good-looking wood in kitchen cabinets, which sometimes contain nasty chems.”

4. On Top: Countertops
“Bored in your bedroom? Then play out your own movie scene and heat things up in the kitchen instead. If you’ve got hot eco-countertops, who needs a bed?”

5. Bedridden
“We owe your boss an apology. As home improvement week draws to a close, your house is looking so good you’re probably practicing your best fake cough, just so you can stay home to admire the recycled countertops. ”

Related articles:
1. Mail Call: Nontoxic Shower Curtains
2. Mail Call: Toxic Wood
3. Sleep Tight, Don’t Let the PBDEs Bite
4. Color Me Bad
5. Color Me Better

This installment of the Carnival of the Green, organized by City Hippy and Triple Pundit, is dedicated to the memory of the victims of the World Trade Center terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001. The sublime LA Green Living hosted last week and I will be passing on the flaming torch in slow motion, to the resonant drumming of “Chariots of Fire,” to Karavans on September 18.

ROLL UP, ROLL UP, ladies and gentlemen, boy and girls, for the stupendous, the magnificent, the peerless, the ONE and ONLY Carnival of the Green. What’s that, sir? How much does it cost? HOW MUCH DOES IT COST? Why, it will cost you, dear sir, ABSOLUTELY NOTHING! That’s right, you heard it right here, ladies and gentlemen, keep your shirts on because you will spend exactly ZERO clams … nada buckaroos … zilch … ZIP … Schrodinger opened the box and the BOX WAS EMPTY! What’s the catch? There’s no catch! You wound me with your cynicism, suh! Right down to the belly of my soul. ‘CEPT I DON’T HAVE ONE! Nearly had you there, didn’t I? What did you say, madam? Yes, you in the very fetching blue silk hat. How long will we be here? Just one night, my friends. You will never see the likes of this carnival, this luminous line-up, this GALAXY OF STARS in its current incarnation ever again in this town! This is a ONCE IN A LIFETIME OPPORTUNITY, ladies and gentlemen, so WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR? Step up, step up, hey no pushing, son, there’s plenty of room for everyone inside the tent, gather in, folks, gather on in …

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Photo by Robert Daly/Getty Images

Your July 4 mission: Have a foaming hot chocolate milk bath.

From Country Living:

The ingredients in our Foaming Hot Chocolate Milk Bath are packed with skin softeners like lactic acid, found in powdered milk. Soak in this rich milk bath to soothe and soften your skin. Heat 3 tablespoons of dry bath mix with 1/2 cup water and 2 tablespoons olive oil in a pan and bring to a boil. Add the hot mixture to bathwater while the tub is filling.

• 1 cup instant nonfat dry milk
• 1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 cup baking soda
• 2 tablespoons cornstarch
• 2 tablespoons cream of tartar
• 2 tablespoons ground cinnamon

Make the milk bath: Combine all ingredients in a jar, cover and store. Keeps for up to 6 months.

Luxuriate in these eco-friendly bathtubs by Durat, made with 50 percent recycled plastic and completely recyclable. [Via Fabulously Green]

More natural skin-care recipes from the magazine here.

Dear Chekhov,

My roommates and I are poor artists and have a lot of pressed wood around the house because it’s cheap and we like to build things. I recently discovered that pressed wood is treated with toxins like formaldehyde, so our plan is to phase out its use. But what do we do with our current supply? Is it so toxic that we should get rid of it immediately, or can we continue to use it? Would it contaminate the soil if we used it for a garden box? What is the best way to dispose of the stuff—can we recycle it, or should it be treated like toxic waste? Can you suggest some cheap, safer alternatives to pressed wood?

Artistically yours,
Aleta

Dear Aleta,

A severe eye, nose, and throat irritant, formaldehyde is a leading indoor air pollutant classified by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency as a probable human carcinogen. Kidlets and nuggets in vitro are, of course, more susceptible to its heinous hold.

Formaldehyde is offgassed as a pungent, colorless vapor by urea-formaldehyde glues used in plywood, particle board, and medium-density fiberboard (MDF). (You can also find formaldehyde lurking in drapes, carpets, and some foam insulation.) Although pressed-wood manufacturers have reduced emissions by 80 percent or more over the past 20 years, concentrations of the gas can still cause nausea, difficulties breathing, chest pains, headaches, and may trigger attacks in people with asthma. While volatile organic compounds (VOCs) such as formaldehyde can be emitted throughout the lifetime of the product, the less-bad news is the amount being offgassed peters out with time as the product dries out.

Particle board is very difficult to recycle, but don’t despair, you can actually purchase eco-friendly formaldehyde sealants, such as AFM Safecoat’s Safe Seal, to block off any formaldehyde vapors. Varnishes such as polyurethane and nitrocellulose are also effective when you brush on a double coating. The EPA- and U.S. Department of Agriculture-funded Healthy Indoor Air for America’s Homes project recommends applying generous coatings to all exposed edges and surfaces, including the undersides of countertops, cabinet interiors, and any drawers. A well-ventilated home will also help disperse any lingering toxic vapors.

If you’re looking for alternatives for the future, PrimeBoard is an MDF made using agricultural waste from wheat straw bound together with formaldehyde-free resins. Reportedly emission-free, PrimeBoard also exceeds industry standards for particle board. You may also want to check out Columbia Forest Products, which uses a patented soy-based adhesive for its veneer-core hardwood plywood.

Medite II is another formaldehyde-free wood-based MDF. (The company also manufactures a decorative hardwood plywood called PureBond that is LEED-compliant and contains no added formaldehyde.)

You can also look for pressed wood bonded with an adhesive called phenol formaldehyde (used in softwood plywood and oriented-strand board), which has a much lower formaldehyde emission rate, according to several sources. (Recite “PF, not UF” like a mantra ad nauseum.)

Be sure to check that your wood products are Forestry Stewardship Council-certified, which ensures that the wood was harvested from sustainably managed forests. Or try sourcing for reclaimed lumber such as those obtained from logs rescued from the bottom of rivers and lakes.

Logging out,
Chekhov (the cat)

From Nonsense NYC:

Build It Green, is New York City’s only nonprofit retail outlet for salvaged and surplus building materials; it is co-sponsored by Habitat-NYC and the Community Environmental Center (CEC). The ReStore Warehouse sells salvaged and surplus building materials and helps keep perfectly useful material out of the landfill. Volunteers are needed to keep the warehouse at its best and to help us continue our work of salvage and re-use. Come out to Astoria and enjoy good company, coffee and bagels, and a whole lot of dusty warehouse organizing and cleaning.

Build It Green Warehouse
3-17 26th Ave. (corner of 4th St.)
Astoria, Queens
www.bignyc.org
12-4 pm

This is community action at its some of its best. Pure genius! I wish I had known about this ahead of time because we’ve already made plans for tomorrow (including stopping by Earth Day New York), but I signed up for their volunteer mailing list, and I urge you to do so, too, if you’re local. Green housing should not be a privilege, but a basic human right, and we need to find ways to build healthy communities cost-effectively, especially in low-income neighborhoods. (The use of toxic PVC materials is widespread in the construction industry—including Habitat for Humanity—because of its affordability. But no matter how you spin it, it’s still class discrimination.) For the rest of us, a nonprofit store like this is a great way to build without contributing anything new to the waste stream, so this is one of those rare occasions where I tell you to GO NUTS SHOPPING. (But don’t get too loco, because I don’t know if I can rustle up your bail money without severely disrupting the space-time continuum.)

(Read Part 1 here.)

These days, you can find paints on sale that are low in those nasty volatile organic compounds (VOCs) I just warned you about. But why settle for reduced VOCs when you have several natural or zero-VOC paints on the market? While healthier options can end up being a great deal more expensive, the good news is that growing public awareness and demand is pushing non-toxic materials into the mainstream, with the result that prices can only go down.

The husband of a woman with multiple chemical sensitivity syndrome was recently quoted as saying, “People can build cheap, but it’s very expensive in the long run because of increased doctor bills.” So even though some of the prices I’ve seen send my immigrant gene diving for cover, I have to admit that his statement makes a lot of sense, especially when I’m taking my family’s short- and long-term wellbeing into account. Call me insane (you won’t be the only one), but I just don’t think that’s something that should be at all compromised just so I can afford to buy the latest iPod. (I have a 7-year-old Discman that skips when you jostle it and I’m DAMN PROUD OF IT, OKAY?)

These are just some of the options I’ve discovered (prices may vary with retailer.)

The Old Fashioned Milk Paint Co. has been making “historic paints” using buttermilk, crushed limestone, and mineral pigments since 1979. Based on methods that can be traced back thousands of years to cave-wall paintings, the Milk Paint formula has been used in the restoration of original Colonial or Shaker furniture, for making antique reproductions, and in historically inspired interior design. Sold in powder form, all you have to do to prime your paint is add water and stir—no toxic ingredients or fumes whatsoever. ($30 per gallon, The Old Fashioned Milk Paint Co.)

So good you can eat it on its own? While definitely not for anorexic bank accounts, Anna Sova’s luscious line of paints are 99 percent composed of food-grade ingredients and contain no VOCs. (The company wants you to think of a gallon of its paint as 12 pounds of vanilla truffles—”a bargain!”) A small premium allows you to mix in aromatherapy scents that can have your walls smelling of fresh lemons, creamy vanilla milkshakes, or sandlewood for six months to a year. ($59 per gallon, Anna Sova Luxury Organics)

Aglaia Natural Paints, produced by German manufacturer Beeck’sche Farbwerke, are 100 percent natural and are derived from plants and minerals. Free of any chemical solvents, the paints are made from ingredients such as beeswax, carnuba wax, chalk, citrus peel oil, clove oil, mica and talcum. In the interest of full disclosure, Aglia also provides a detailed list of its ingredients on its Web site. ($51.95-$87.55 per gallon/white, Aglaia Natural Paints)

Eco-friendly paints, stains, finishes, and cleaners contribute to what BioShield considers a healthy home. Its low-environmental-impact paints are 98 percent made from renewable and naturally-derived raw materials such as citrus peel extracts, essential oils, seed oils, tree resins, inert mineral fillers, tree and bee waxes, lead-free dryers, and natural pigments. ($40 per gallon, BioShield)

YOLO Colorhouse’s palette of designer, zero-VOC paints recalls the hues of nature with collection names such as “Air” and “Leaf.” Founded by artists and self-proclaimed “color nerds” Virginia Young and Janie Lowe only a year ago, YOLO is Green Seal-certified, which automatically qualifies their paints for LEED-certified projects. (Update: In late 2006, YOLO released a line of baby-friendly colors, created with young families in mind. Called Little YOLO, you get the same zero-VOC, Green Seal-certified paint, with soft, dreamy palettes for the nursery crowd.) ($37 per gallon, YOLO Colorhouse)

Manufactured by a company on a mission to eliminate toxic chemicals and reduce offgassing to a minimum, AFM Safecoat products have a history of use even by the chemically sensitive. Its paint formula also acts as a sealer to thwart any off-gassing beneath the surface from previous coats of paint or building materials. (From $32.90 per gallon, AFM Safecoat)

Inspired by ancient Mayan techniques, Green Planet Paints uses renewable, non-toxic clay and mineral pigments, along with a soy-based resin, to create a zero-VOC paint that is as sustainable as it is socially responsible. ($38.50 per gallon, Green Planet Paints)

Special bonus material:
1. Live in Chicago? You have your own green building-supply company.

2. For natural, soy-based stain removers, paint strippers, wood sealers, stain removers, and cleaners, look to SoyClean’s range of non-toxic products.

3. So you don’t feel left out, New Zealanders and Australians should check out Bio Paints.