It’s the middle of July here in Washington, D.C. and the temperature has been over 100 °F much too much for my liking of late. Thankfully plastics continue to play a critical role in keeping things cool both indoors and out.

From a housing standpoint, plastic building products promote the efficient use of energy and other resources. For example, walls that use structural insulated panels made with expanded polystyrene (EPS) can help homeowners save hundreds of dollars annually on heating and cooling bills. EPS starts out as a plastic pellet and ends up as nearly 95 percent air which is a very effective insulator. Another example is polycarbonate which can be used in windows. In addition to being lightweight and shatter-resistant, polycarbonate has low thermal conductivity, which can help to reduce heating and cooling costs. And what about plastic house wrap technology? Plastic house wrap technology reduces the infiltration of outside air and helps to drastically reduce the energy required to heat or cool the home. So with these technologies (and, of course, air conditioners and fans  — which have plenty of plastic parts) one can keep cool indoors.

When outdoors, what you wear can make a difference. I’m partial to the clothing that uses wicking technologyto keep you cool. Traditional cotton clothing tends to soak up and retain sweat, making the wearer unable to cool themselves off properly and making the garment heavier. Wicking technology utilizes fabrics that move sweat away from the skin to the outer surface of the fabric, where it evaporates. Many of these fabrics are made out of polyester fibers and often can be recycled through program’s such as the Common Threads Recycling Program.

Getting in the water is, of course, a favorite way to keep cool in the summer. Most bathing suits are made from plastic materials such as polyester, nylon and Lycra (or Spandex). Of course, we have blogged here before about the uproar in competitive swimming circles concerning new high tech suits made from polyurethane.

In addition, many above ground pools and most inflatable wading pools are made from some combination of PVC (which has excellent resistance to damage via abrasion, impact and sunlight), polypropylene and polyester mesh. Backyard pools also depend on flexible, durable and easy-to-clean vinyl liners to keep their inner surfaces smooth on feet and protected from sunlight, abrasion and water-treatment chemicals. Swimming pools with vinyl and polypropylene covers bring safety and peace of mind to pool owners with very small children. Even diving boards are usually covered with polyurethane epoxy resin paint that creates a non-skid surface to prevent dangerous slips.

So whether you are indoors or out, plastics play an important role in making these hot days more bearable.

Photo courtesy of Infrogmation of New Orleans

A few weeks ago, I attended a meeting in which a presenter discussed our nation’s need to strive for a more sustainable future. Arguing that sustainability is not a new concept, the presenter showed an image of a glass bottle house located in the Calico Ghost Town, and noted that we need to recapture the ingenuity of the past in order to essentially save the world.

According to this web site devoted to bottle houses, it is unclear whether the Calico Bottle House was created in Calico, brought there from another ghost town, or is actually just a modern reproduction. But it is generally understood that short of building materials, early mining camp settlers made their shelters out of whatever they could — including discarded bottles from the town’s saloon. 

Although I would argue that the ingenuity of the past was often more of an exercise in survival rather than sustainability, I still appreciated the speaker’s illustration and would make the case that we are already replicating those triumphs. Whether it is transforming a plastic bag into low-maintenance fencing, a plastic soda bottle into the 111 Navy Chair, or any of the recycled plastic products we’ve spotlighted on this blog, our society continues to recycle and re-purpose items that would otherwise end up in the landfill.

In fact, a recent article describes what I consider the next generation of the glass bottle house, the EcoArk. Commissioned by the Far Eastern Group for the 2010 Taipei International Expo, this 278’ X 131’ X 85’ structure is constructed of roughly 1.8 million recycled polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles. Using the Polli-Brick, a recycled polymer architecture brick developed by Hymini, these interlocking bricks are supposedly strong enough to withstand storms or earthquakes and yet so easy to disassemble, that the EcoArk is expected to be reassembled elsewhere after the Expo.  Can you see it at NPE2012?

Yet beyond its strength and interesting honeycomb look, the Polli-Brick is  designed to offer exquisite thermal and sound insulation, and its translucent design will not only allow natural light to filter through the material, but also offer the consumer the ability to use the brick for creative lighting. Oh, and did I mention the cost? Arthur Huang, the engineer behind the EcoArk, estimated that his building  is one-third less expensive than if it had been constructed using conventional methods.

While I highly doubt that architects will embrace the Polli-Brick, at least in the near term, I do believe that it is one impressive step towards developing a more sustainable nation.

This time of year, graduation ceremonies recognize young people’s academic achievement, growth and maturity. What better way to celebrate these virtues than to enable graduates to actually show that they are conscientious citizens of the world at these celebratory ceremonies?

In an effort to meet the green demands of students (and, increasingly, schools), graduation gown companies are manufacturing gowns made from recycled plastic bottles that can be reused or recycled.  According to a recent Associated Press article, the gowns are lighter and softer than traditional virgin polyester.   This will be a huge relief to grads who are typically forced to sit through hot and sweaty outdoor ceremonies.

Oak Hall Cap and Gown in Virginia and University Cap and Gown in Massachusetts are two of the companies offering the recycled plastic bottle gowns – the GreenWeaver and UltraGreen lines, respectively. According to the article, the University of Vermont bookstore is displaying an Oak Hall gown next to 23 plastic bottles in order to show students how many were recycled to make the fabric. 

While the green movement is here to stay, currently the standard polyester gowns, which are slightly less expensive, remain the most popular option.  Oak Hall reports that this spring approximately 100 schools ordered the new gowns and 1,500 stayed with the traditional polyester.  The owner of University Cap and Gown says that about 7 percent of his customers ordered the new recycled plastic gowns. (Personally, I think the fact that the “green” gowns currently only come in black may factor into their popularity. So many colleges use graduation gowns that match the traditional colors of the school.)

One key challenge is getting grads exiting the ceremonies to further the sustainability of the gowns by depositing them in specially marked bins so they can be recycled into new fabric. It kind of defeats the whole “recycled bottle” purpose to just trash the gowns. Another option is for grads to give their gowns to a younger friend for reuse.

Recycling or reusing these gowns really shouldn’t be a big deal for these diploma-toting, newly educated, mature citizens of the world, right?

Following a long day at the office, nothing beats a nice glass of wine. Be it red or white, paired with a meal or by itself, wine is that delicate ribbon that wraps up and improves a perfectly awful day.

After recently having such a day, I popped open a bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon, poured a glass and, to my horror, discovered tiny bits of cork floating on the surface. While rectifying the situation, I questioned why in the 400 or so years since Dom Perignon developed the wine cork we haven’t come up with a solution to this irritating problem.

Actually, we have. It’s called the plastic cork.

Just for a bit of background, the traditional wine cork is harvested from the Quercus Suber or cork oak found in Spain and Portugal, which is carefully stripped of its bark and eventually processed into the recognizable wine stopper.  Although it’s traditional, and has been used to preserve some of the finest wines in the world, it is also responsible for a condition known as “cork taint,” dry cork and cork disintegration. 

Now I may consider myself a “traditionalist,” but when it comes to my wine, I am willing to throw out my beliefs to ensure quality.  The plastic cork will not disintegrate, will not produce “cork taint,” is recyclable, and is much easier to remove from the bottle. Although some argue that it impedes the natural maturation process, wine rarely stays around my house long enough to mature. I have come to love the plastic cork.

Apparently, others agree. According to a Wall Street Journal article, over the last decade an estimated 20% of the bottle stopper market has been replaced by plastic corks. The article describes how Marc Noel, a plastics extruder in North Carolina, started Nomacorc, a plastic cork business that “broke the centuries-old cork monopoly,” calling it a ”lesson in how innovation, timing and hustle combined to exploit an opening in a once airtight market.” 

Noel’s innovation was to produce corks with two kinds of extruded plastic: a hard inner core that would maintain the cork’s shape and a softer exterior that would fit better. Other plastic cork  manufacturers -  including  Supreme Corq and Neocork - soon joined the market.

And don’t forget - many fine wines now come in plastic wine bottles.

Cheers!

No doubt we all hear a lot about reducing waste. But how about using plastics to reduce waste and conserve valuable resources?

Recently I was reading an interesting story about how the German sports lifestyle company PUMA finished a 21 month project to redesign a shoebox.  The time frame appears awfully long to revamp a shoebox, but the results seem worth it.  Puma’s “Clever Little Bag,” was unveiled at a recent press conference at the UK’s Design Museum in London.  The bag itself is made of recycled polyethylene terephthalate (PET) which encases a single sheet of ink-free recycled cardboard.  The plan is for bags to be made available in the second half of 2011, and PUMA will encourage customers to reuse the bag and recycle the cardboard.

The new design (which entails both form and fashion) aims to cut paper usage by 65%.  As a result of the paper reduction, PUMA will reduce water, energy and diesel consumption on the manufacturing level by more than 60% per year.  In other words: approximately 8,500 tons less paper will be consumed, 20 million megajoules of electricity saved, 1 million liters less of fuel oil used and 1 million liters of water saved. In addition, during transport 500,000 liters of diesel is saved.  These stats are pretty impressive.

The new packaging system was designed for PUMA by industrial designer Yves Behar, the Swiss-born founder of the San Francisco design studio, fuseproject, and creator of the jawbone bluetooth headphone and One Laptop Per Child computer.  According to Behar the new bag will protects each pair of shoes from damage from the point it leaves the factory until the consumer takes it home — thus generating savings on the production side due to less material used, reducing weight during transport and eliminating the need for extra carrier bags.

The bag, and an earlier prototype, are currently on display as part of the Design Museum’s new exhibition entitled “Sustainable Futures — Can design make a difference?“  Interesting question.  Based on what I’m seeing here, design can make a difference and plastics continue to be a part of a sustainable future.