We are just starting the planning stage of our new kitchen and are struggling to find a decent green/ethical worktop material that:
a) doesn't cost a fortune b) isn't made from unsustainable wood c) isn't granite shipped from Brazil / China / India d) is relatively low maintenance and not easily burned/marked e) won't look out of place in a traditional/shaker kitchen in a Victorian terraced house
Tall order I know, but can anyone recommend anything?
Andy
-- Andy Kirkland
On Sat, 21 Jul 2007 10:55:03 +0100, Andy Kirkland mused:
Anyone on any use?
European hardwoods (where most forestry is sustainable) - e.g. oak, beech etc.
Reclaimed hardwoods e.g. old school laboratory benches, planks recut and made up into new boards.
Tropical hardwoods with traceability to sustained forestry (though many of the assurance schemes are undermined/abused).
Locally quarried stone.
Slate or tiles of some kind?
Welsh and Cornish slate are possibles
You may find something at an architectural salvage place.
Tile the work surface.
I was thinking tiles, but then thought of all the nasty chemicals used for glazes etc.
Steel is probably fairly green, in that it's probably recycled and can be re-recycled.
Owain
On Sat, 21 Jul 2007 15:29:15 +0100, Peter Parry mused:
Awful idea.
I'm told epoxy grout works well for kitchen tiled tops.
NT
Recycling is very green - look in salvage yards. Otherwise Stainless steel, glass, or locally sourced hardwood. Robert
Rubberwood? It uses wood from rubber trees that have been felled before replanting the rubber plantation, thus would otherwise be wasted. We have rubberwood worktops and they have worn very well, they are several years old now and still look good and we are not the most careful of users.
You mean like sand?
Why is it that greenery and profound ignorance always seem to march hand in hand?
That can be fixed with a good sloshing of seawater.
I was thinking more of the pigments etc, like the various compounds of titanium and chromium. Even if theyr'e naturally occurring, mining, processing and transporting them aren't "green"
I think that's a little harsh; I was only trying to make some helpful suggestions and observe that what at first sight appears green might not be.
On the upside, Italian scientists have found that titanium dioxide "eats" smog.
Owain
Porcelain tiles. Use epoxy grout. You may of course have to investigate where the tiles were made, cheap ones may come from the far east etc.
Not well enough IME... PITA stuff to work with as well!
I was feeling particularly grumpy :-)
Nothing is. There was some idiot on TV recently building his ecohovel and you could barely see it for smoke from chain saws. Greenies like simple things, so the latest fad is "food miles". Not the more complicated but more relevant fuel per kg of food delivered, that involves thinking; just nice simple and wrong "distance is bad" (unless you are going to a green conference in the Bahamas).
The idea that you can be part of the modern world but by hugging a tree and signing up to vapid "ethical" and "green" mantras not leave blobs of grot over it is asinine.
What's more (while I'm at it!) the buggers breed like flies. Every "green" house seems to be infested with a dozen brats. Why can't these twits understand their breeding habits will do far more harm and produce far more CO2 than their transport choices?
Sort of like this, really:
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