Friday, April 26, 2013

Understanding Wooden Windows, Plastic Windows And Their Environmental Footprint

By James Carlton


When it comes to the global environment today, there is one all important question many home owners need an answer to: Wooden windows or plastic windows which one is better for the environment? The reason this question is important is that, as the world's population increases, the need for housing of all types is also increasing. This means more and more of just about everything that has to do with housing, including windows -- which can be made of wood and plastic, by the way.

In looking at windows, it's important to understand that the issue with them usually never involves the glass contained within, because that material is almost completely organic in nature. Made from sand and its constituents, it poses little threat to the environment, quite frankly. However, depending on how they're manufactured, woods and plastics can present more of a burden though, it has to be said, wood is generally less so.

Plastics of all types, whether used in window frames or the casings that go around modern-day flat panel LCD TVs, is made using a number of potentially-harmful chemical processes. It also tends not to be biodegradable in any appreciable fashion. Once made, they just don't break down over any amount of time that can be appreciated by humans. Sometimes, they can take thousands of years before they begin to degrade, in fact.

Wooden windows, on the other hand -- especially when they're made from organically-grown and then processed wood -- can be significantly less burdensome to the environment. The cost of making a wooden window in an eco-friendly manner can be higher when compared to the cost of manufacturing a plastic window, but the benefit to the environment can be quite significant. The use of natural lacquers and preservative shellacs also helps to make wood attractive.

In order to arrive, then, at a definitive answer when it comes to plastic versus wood is in just how the windows will be disposed of or reused. Wooden windows, when manufactured in an environmentally-aware fashion, place less of a burden on the environment as long as they're created in a kind of "organic" manner. Plastics can place a high burden on the environment because they never degrade and because the chemicals used in them can be highly toxic.

So, then; answering the question (wooden windows or plastic windows which one is better for the environment?) seems easy enough to address. It would seem that, at present, there's really no way to ensure that plastics and the chemicals they're made with can be made less harmful to the environment than wooden windows. That material degrades easily enough and it can be made in a safer manner and then recycled easily, as well, it must be said.




About the Author:



No comments:

Post a Comment