When Diane Kiradjieff decided to add a new deck onto her home, she went all out, putting on a fancy two-tiered model with an arbor and a swing. And instead of building it out of redwood, she went with a material she liked even better: recycled plastic grocery bags.
“When people ask, `What is this?’ we tell them, `Your old Harris Teeter bags,”‘ says the 37-year-old part-time teacher in Charlotte, N.C.
Remember that plastic bottle you threw out? It’s probably in your new carpet. Once only for the Birkenstocks crowd, recycled building products have gone so mainstream that new home buyers may not even realize their insulation is made of old newspapers or their carpet pads had a previous life as car dashboards. In the past five years alone, sales of green materials have doubled, and are expected to do well even in these slower times. That’s $300 million of everything from “blue jean” insulation to shingles made from rubber tires.
Plastic’s perks
What’s driving all this? Certainly, the environmental message is hitting home, with even upscale developers and high-end architects now routinely using the stuff. And there are some extra pluses: Decks made out of plastic will never rot and don’t need staining. Spill anything on them? Kiradjieff says all she has to do is hose off the deck after cookouts.
But beware: Though most of the products were once garbage, many of them can be pretty pricey. What’s more, it doesn’t take an eagle eye to spot the recycled materials from the usual ones. Especially when some “wooden decks” have no grain or some of the carpets tend to always look dirty (the maker says most colors look fine). Handyman homeowners who’ve tried installing denim insulation say it’s just fine–until they get blue cotton dust all over them. Still, environmental correctness in the American home has come a long way. For decades most green materials attracted little attention, if only because being environmentally friendly wasn’t considered a selling point. Then, in the early ’90s, a flood of consumer products hit the home stores–plastic lumber, carpets made of recycled materials, tiles made of old beer bottles. And as more people recycle, the quality of the products has improved. Plus, makers now have a reliable enough supply to take green products mass market.
In fact, some of the biggest users of recycled materials are large developers who hardly fit the granola stereotype. At upscale McStain Neighborhoods in Colorado, all the decks are made from recycled plastic, carpets made from recycled plastics, and recycled paper insulation. Toll Brothers builders, whose homes go for an average $500,000, now routinely use carpet padding made from old dashboards. Almost all K. Hovnanian homes have recycled vinyl window frames.
Converts argue you can’t tell the difference between the regular stuff and the recycled versions. Kim Reuter, of Lakewood, Colo., says his new roof, made from old rubber tires, looks “just like” ceramic tile. Even better, it came with a 50-year guarantee that even hail the size of basketballs won’t do any damage. (That’s why his insurance company is saying it will give him a hefty discount on his premium.) And Donna Bade Shirey says the “warm caramel-colored” rug she put in her Issaquah, Wash., bedroom “doesn’t scream recycled–it’s stylish.”
Others say many of the green products bear only a slight resemblance to the ones they’re supposed to replace. Trex plastic decking, for instance, looks more like pressed mud than redwood or cedar. Trex says any problems are probably due to improper installation and that fading is to be expected.
In our tests, opinions were varied. One New York homeowner thought the recycled jeans insulation looked like “dust from the vacuum cleaner.” A rug made from old plastics, meanwhile, appeared “dirty,” she said. Still, tiles made from recycled glass have the warm texture of sea glass while some people prefer the recycled vinyl tiles.
New snafus
But with new products come new problems. While building his house in Chandler, Ariz., Norman Fite decided to install blue-jean insulation. It was about 45 percent more expensive than standard fiberglass, but the 54-year-old real estate agent liked the fact that he could install it without a protective mask or gloves. Another problem: Blue cotton dust from the insulation can spread. “You get blue hands,” says Fite.
And when Jeff Meyer, a software engineer in Seattle decided to remodel his bathroom, he wanted to put in a specific blue tile made from recycled soda bottles. Unfortunately, the company whose bottles were used for the tiles had folded, making it unavailable. Meyer settled for light green, instead.
Some contractors, like Brian Lemke, just don’t want to work with the green materials. The St. Paul, Minn., deck installer says he stopped putting in plastic decks after clients complained that their porches mildewed or faded within six months. “They certainly don’t warrant spending twice as much as you would on wood,” says Lemke. “Don’t be deceived by the glossy brochures.”
But in the end, green products’ biggest problem may be their price, especially if the economy stays tight. Wisconsin homeowner Julia Mason was sold on flooring that comes from tires for her basement, until she saw the price tag, $10 a square foot, or twice as much as ceramic tile. Those plastic decks, meanwhile, can cost 30 percent more than plain old wood. “It’s going to continue to be a harder sell,” says Paul Adams, an architect at Earth & Sky Design in Denver. “People have the mind frame, `OK, I’m going to pay extra for a used car?”‘
