Environmentally Friendly Fitted Kitchen

B

BirdyE

Guest
We are doing a renovation job on our house, we are "greening" the house with the addition of solar panels and wood pellet burner, wool insulation, grass roof etc... that kind of thing. We will be getting a new kitchen and don't have an awful lot to spend on cupboards. MDF and laminates don't fit in with the whole ethos of the project. I was wondering does anyone know of someplace that does wood(even plywood) carcasses and doors made of some kind of sustainable material? Pine carcasses would be great but I imagine that's way out of our budget. It's a fairly small kitchen but it's a modern city centre house, so total country kitchen is going to look rubbish. Anyone who has any ideas on suppliers, especially those who are interested in green projects, please pass on the info. It may be that there are some lacquered doors that are actually fine, environmentally speaking, I am not aware of them though. Any help greatly appreciated.
 
Why would you say that MDF and laminates wouldn't fit in with your "green ethos"? I'm no expert but you need to consider a number of factors when analysizing something's "green credentials". The embodied energy involved in a material's production, its lifecycle and possibilities for recycling are all important considerations. MDF and laminates are produced from wood thinnings specially produced and harvested for particle board production. A certain amount of raw material is also derived from other timber waste streams (sawdust, chips, off cuts). For this reason there may be less embodied energy required for the production of a sheet of mdf than for the production of say, one solid timber sheet. MDF and plywood production involves the use of formaldehyde but there are grades of material available which are free from this chemical; though these naturally come at a premium. For the reasons outlined above I would consider MDF to be one of the more sustainable timber products available today. Most furniture and fittings produced today are never intended to last the lifetime of the house in which they are installed: you'll find many references on this site even, advising people to "put a cheap kitchen in their new-build now, it can be ripped out after a few years". I reckon the time and energy you could spend on trying to source a kitchen with the perfect "green credentials" could be better spent. If you really want to minimise your impact on the environment go for a standard MDF carcass kitchen, with the doors and countertop of your choice, but fit only "A" rated appliances, CFL lighting and a heat recovery system for your extraction requirements. Use appropriate heating controls, good insulation and cut down air leakage. This, in addition to specifying and using quality components and finishes which have a long life and minimal maintenance requirements will help in your quest to reduce your impact on the environment. Of course this is just my opionion, I may be completely wrong! I admire your efforts.
 
Thanks for the response carpenter. what you say is worth thinking about. This is a whole house project,(with building) so insulation, heating, appliances are already taken care of. The kitchen units are proving more difficult. I know that you can get a cheap kitchen made with MDF, the foremost issue with this is the gas emitted over it's lifetime but, as you say, these products are made, essentially, from what would otherwise be waste. I think, though, that pine frames are probably better all round for the environment. I am not interested in ripping out a kitchen in 4-5 years time. This is hard enough work without taking a kitchen out again that soon. I expect frames to definitely last a lifetime and if doors become totally horrible, I won't be changing them for a very long time. I'll put up with it. I will have a further look into the MDF question, if we can specify higher grade products which don't have this formaldehyde and lifetime gass emission problem, then cool. Do you know do any Irish manufacturers use these products, plywood or solid wood?
 
BTW I'm not suggesting that you or anyone else should specify an MDF carcass kitchen simply because it's "disposable"; I have a "budget" kitchen in my own house, which I hope to have for many years. There is no reason why a well put-together kitchen from MDF cannot last 20 years or more. Certainly, solid wood doors look well and will last a long time but there is no environmental or economic argument for using solid wood for the basic carcass construction, in fact I think this would be a waste of a good natural resource. Solid timber must be carefully managed, harvested, milled and finished before it is marketed as flooring, doors etc. To use such material in carcass work would be wasteful, in my opinion. If you wish you can specify Medite with a zero (formaldehyde) emission, this is used primarily for conservation work in museums, protected environments etc. I just think that overall (big picture here) the emissions related to a domestic kitchen construction are negligible- considered against the emissions from your car/ heating boiler/ open fire etc over their lifteime. You can specify timber and other wood products which are certifed under the FSC scheme, at least you will know that the timber comes from a sustainable source. Your selected supplier(s) should be able to confirm whether their material is FSC approved or not. This is a very interesting debate and I'd be curious to hear from anyone else with views on the subject....

As a postscript it amazes me that so much useable, recyclable wood ends up in landfill in this country; at the very least such timber could be used as a fuel source. The use of timber (from managed, sustainable sources) will always make sense given the carbon locked into each tree and tree product.
 
Carpenter said:
As a postscript it amazes me that so much useable, recyclable wood ends up in landfill in this country; at the very least such timber could be used as a fuel source. The use of timber (from managed, sustainable sources) will always make sense given the carbon locked into each tree and tree product.
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Would such wood not generally be treated or laminated or whatever rendering it unsuitable for combustion without further preprocessing?
 
A lot of plain, untreated construction timber (planed, sawn timber and plywood, pallets and packaging) ends up in landfill; this would require no further processing for use as a fuel other than cutting into suitably sized pieces. A lot of "laminated" sheet material (painted, melanine or vinyl wrapped MDF, chipboard and other particle boards) ends up in landfill too and burning such material would certainly result in the release of dioxins into the atmosphere, but is this any worse than burying such products where they decompose over time, releasing CO2 into the atmosphere and allowing (probably) hazardous chemicals to leach into groundwater sources? Is it not better to harness some heat from the product through burning it, rather than just dumping it? Just something to consider. Even if we diverted this entire waste stream for use as a fuel source the dioxins produced would probably never equal that produced by illegal backyard burning, which is rampant in rural (and not so rural) Ireland; however I digress...
 
Hi Carpenter, I agree with you that in the light of all the other environmentally unsound things that we all do, MDF emissions are minute. However, if one can eliminate this bad thing from one's home environment, then why not eliminate it? Every little helps and if I can do this small thing, then I will do it. As we will also be trying to have an eco friendly heating system, using sustainable wood windows, doors, floors and ecofriendly insulation, then it would seem silly to have a kitchen emitting gases, ( however miniscule), which can't really be recycled without emitting dioxins. The old kitchen that is in the house is already recycled in that it came from another house and i would hope to pass on at least some of it to someone else. It is a solid wood kitchen so it can be burnt. I'll have to check the carcasses though. I get your point about that being a waste of good wood to use it for carcasses. However, if we are talking about cheap renewable pine then why not use it? If there is a cheaper and entirely safe alternative, we'll have a look at that too.
On the landfill question, you are right people throw out perfectly good wood items and that is very wrong, of course they should be used as a a heat source. However, if the wood is treated in some way I really couldn't say whether the chemicals released into the atmosphere would be less hazardous than if it was allowed to rot in landfill. I imagine with the technology involved in modern incineration that emissions can be reduced to very low levels but without further research I couldn't say.
Thanks for your helpful replies.
 
Carpenterman, if you are still reading. Your info inspired a fresh wave of research and there is a product Medite 2 , which is entirely formaldehyde free. I don't know whether Medite Europe, ( in Ireland) has it but it is out there. Due to your info we will be looking again at MDF again.
 
I'm sure the product is available in Ireland, I think their Irish plant is one of the major producers of medite for the European market.
 
Hi,

I wonder if you got something enviromentally friendly for your kitchen.
I heard there is a new company in Limerick they do all environmentally friendly products for home, not cleaning products, they are green designers. It could be good idea to contact them.
Regarding to the best raw material for a kitchen fitted is real wood, that is ecofriendly and natural and no toxic at all, but anyway you might have something done right now in your kitchen.

Best of luck!!!

Espiral Aurea
 
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