The Reserve Bank of Australia recently noted that one of the problems with the country’s unaffordable housing market was the nation’s obsession with renovation. Kitchens are early targets for renovations, often only having a lifespan of under 10 years. Warren McLaren examines the choices for more eco-friendly kitchen countertops.
Timber
Wood is obviously a wonderfully renewable material, but its source must be considered if we are to conserve our high-value, old growth forest and all their attendant biodiversity. For benchtops, hardwood timber is preferable to softwood, as the former is generally the more water resistant and harder wearing of the two. Reused, salvaged hardwood would be the first choice for a kitchen countertop, followed by a timber sourced from Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certified forests or plantations. For a longer life, timber is best protected by a sealant, such as natural beeswax or oil. Whilst initially offering a harder protective shield, sealants like polyurethane varnishes are petrochemical derivatives and often require complete ‘stripping back’ to repair scratches. Timber, as a food preparation medium, has also been shown to have more effective anti-bacterial qualities than plastic or even marble.
Paper
X-Board from Xanita out of South Africa is a high-strength honeycomb board made predominately of post-consumer recycled paper — up to 65 per cent in some products, with the remaining 35 per cent coming from bagasse (sugar cane waste). The paper/bagasse honeycomb can be readily recycled in paper waste streams once its useful life has passed. For use in benchtops the product can be specified with a thin plywood or MDF top sheet for extra load bearing capacity. Veneers or high pressure laminates can be applied to form a countertop that Xanita suggest uses up to 75 per cent less virgin wood fibre compared to solid MDF sheets. The paper honeycomb core is also naturally VOC free. KlipTech’s EcoTop also uses recycled paper, in this instance from FSC certified sources in a 50/50 blend with renewable bamboo fibre. Water-based resin impregnated sheets are compressed into a solid water-resistant board then can be worked with wood tools.
Stainless steel
It is possible that a stainless steel benchtop contains up to 80 per cent recycled metal scrap, with 60 per cent being the average. Though only around 25 per cent of the total material is likely to be post-consumer recycled content, the remaining 35 per cent recycled content comes from post-industrial sources, according to the Australian Stainless Steel Development Association (ASSDA). However, once past its usefulness, a stainless steel countertop could be 100 per cent recycled. And it may take a long time before such a benchtop needs to be recycled. Due to it’s high durable nature, it should continue beyond the life of its human fabricators. Although stainless steel contains materials such as chromium and nickel, these are not considered detrimental to human health in common applications of stainless steel. A small number of people do suffer nickel allergies, but the manner in which nickel is formed in stainless steel also reduces this risk.
Engineered stone
This has become the hot new category for kitchen benchtops. Stone waste from quarrying the likes of granite, marble, quartz and such is held together with a binder to create a fabricated solid slab that some manufacturers consider even harder than the original stone. Heat resistance is also said to exceed that of the natural stone. Some like Quarella also add in recycled glass to versions of its product. CaesarStone, whose engineered stone slabs comprise up to 93 per cent quartz, also offer a collection of countertops with up to 42 per cent recycled raw materials, which include post-industrial reclaimed quartz as well as post-consumer recycled glass and mirrors. WK Marble & Granite has a similarly specced engineered quartz product known as Quantum Quartz and deploys recycled coloured glass and oyster shells, although in smaller percentages than Caesarstone’s dedicated recycled line.
Concrete
Once considered an industrial material best hidden from view, concrete has, in more recent times, come to be appreciated for its own aesthetic qualities and has progressed from a polished floor application to kitchen countertops. However, they tend towards the expensive end of the scale due to the labour involved and the effort required to install them without any cracking. Allied to those costs is the need for sealers that limit the natural porosity of the concrete. These sealants often lack the heat resistance and durability of the underneath substrate. Cement is a key ingredient in concrete and its production is one of our highest single causes of carbon dioxide emissions, but around a third of cement can be replaced by recycled flyash and recycled aggregate can also be specified. Once in situ, there should be little need to remove a polished concrete benchtop.
Resin
Hardwearing resin like Samsung’s Staron is comprised of minerals from bauxite extraction blended with roughly 40 per cent acrylic resin. Staron does not emit VOCs at normal room temperatures, but can release some methyl methacrylate at higher temperatures, leading to skin and lung irritation. Some Staron colours are available with 5 per cent to 30 per cent post-industrial recycled content. And although Staron has received GreenGuard certification for its low VOCs, we wonder if Samsung overstepped the mark by claiming the product is ‘renewable’. This doesn’t mean it can be regrown like timber, but that it can be rebuffed after wear. The well-known competitive resin product Corian, like Staron, is similarly GreenGuard certified. From Finland comes a polyester-based resin benchtop material Durat, which contains 30 per cent recycled acrylic and polyester plastics, which contribute to its speckled colouration. Durat itself is said to be 100 per cent recyclable. Other brands like Marblo provide an extended producer responsibility take-back scheme for its resin boards.
Laminate
At first glance, there doesn’t appear much about high pressure laminate countertops that one might constitute as ‘green’. They are often paper which has been impregnated with melamine resin and stuck to particleboard or MDF substrate with adhesive. Volatile organic compounds can be common in the glues used for the particleboard or bonding the laminate sheet. These can off-gas, reducing the indoor air quality. But with the right will it is possible to improve even these materials. For instance, the Laminex Group offer its Greenfirst range of high pressure laminates as having been certified by Good Environmental Choice Australia and as meeting the voluntary environmental labelling standard for Australian Environmental Labelling Furniture and Fittings. Its MDF is made of recycled or reclaimed wood fibre. The paper, which carries the pattern, is certified by one of three different agencies (although two are forest industry-based bodies). The product has low VOC and formaldehyde emissions.
Solid stone
Granite, marble and their ilk are renown for their longevity. They are exceedingly hard-wearing, meaning they should not need replacing within the lifetime of the home. However, unlike timber, they are not renewable, and unlike stainless steel, can’t be recycled — although they can be reused, or they can be downcycled into other products, like engineered stone. Whilst being generally immune to regular wear and tear, stone benchtops are not impervious and can absorb stains from liquids, oils and foodstuffs and can thus require the use of sealants. Often hard-wearing stone for countertops is imported from Europe. This can create additional greenhouse gas emissions due to the extensive transport involved. Such carbon may be offset by the incredibly long life that cut stone like granite and marble offer. But only if the substrate can withstand the whim of interior design ‘trends’ that see such stone come in and out of fashion.
Thermoplastic
Abet Laminati’s Tefor is not a high pressure laminate but is made from the waste of its manufacturing processes. Tefor comprises 100 per cent recycled polypropylene and laminate powder and can be recycled. But before we get too excited, it should be acknowledged that even though it does exhibit a high impact strength, Tefor is not considered to be highly abrasion resistant. It also has limited resistance to high temperatures and excessive sunlight. And not being overly structurally robust in its own right, Tefor is usually bonded to particleboard or MDF substrates. Given such limitations, thermoplastic is best reserved for splashbacks on benchtops. Dotmar’s Nuvex is a thermoplastic that is structural and doesn’t mind sunlight. Although targeted towards public bathroom partition walls, this solid high density polyethylene plastic board is also a possible consideration for vanities and countertops. It contains 46 per cent recycled content and can be recycled. But the caveat about high temperatures remains.
