recycled-building-materials / Green Building & Sustainable Home Renovation Information & Advice

They might be parked a little more precisely than an auto wrecking yard, but that doesn’t mean they will ever fly again. Decommissioned aircraft have been declared so, because they have reached the end of their safe flying days. While most of us might be fine riding in rusty old cars, few of us would climb into a rusty...

All materials will have a history, the pros and cons of which will need to be weighed. Unfortunately there isn’t always an obvious right or wrong answer as to whether or not something is a sustainable material. The design of your home, where you live and your lifestyle are all factors that determine what the most ecolo...

The cost of every item we purchase is determined in part by the price of oil. This includes products that are in no way petroleum based, since material extraction, manufacturing and transportation will in one way or another, rely at least in part on oil. As the price of oil continues to rise, the money saved by employi...

Though we all diligently cart our plastic to the curb for recycling, the sad reality is that only about 7% of it is commercially viable for recycling, the rest ends up as landfill. Plastic is a petroleum product that until now has been very inconsistent and unstable when returned to an oil form. Recently a North Americ...

When buildings are decommissioned there can be a lot of valuable materials that could be used again, but when buyers can’t find sellers, otherwise usable materials are being sent to a land fill. There is a growing amount of used building materials that can be found at online classified websites such as Craigslist and K...

Shipping container homes are gaining popularity globally, especially as Tiny Houses, as they can be seductively attractive with their modern looking lines, colours and shape - but one question we've been asked consistently is: "Are shipping containers Good or Bad as homes - and for the Environment?"  Like many great id...

b sq. Design Studio Inc. is a Toronto based landscape design and build firm that endeavours to create elegant and modern landscapes with a focus on sustainability and longevity for their work. “Plug and Play – the Pallet Garden” is their 5th feature garden installation for the annual Canada Blooms Garden Festival. ...

The best way to reduce waste is to plan ahead to keep it at a minimum; here are some suggestions on how you can do that: Design your house with reduced waste in mind by keeping the plans at sensible dimensions. If you plan lengths to be 4 and 8 foot increments instead of 5 and 9, this makes the best use of industry st...

  This article was inspired by a podcast I heard at Positive Energy, where I have yet to hear a podcast that I didn't want to listen to a second time, so check them out if you're like me and you think listening to building science  makes mundane tasks like folding laundry a joy. This particular episode was about phase ...

Hemp is a very sustainable construction material that is no longer just a fringe product; rather, it is becoming a more accessible mainstream building product, most notably as hemp-batt insulation, and also hemp boards for cabinetry.  Why choose hemp building materials? The growing and harvesting of hemp is a far more ...

  The environmental advantages of wood frame construction: As just about the only renewable building material, wood has many advantages over other materials. It requires less energy to produce in terms of resource extraction, manufacturing and transportation. While still prevalent in residential construction, wood has ...