Screw Certainteed!
I was looking over a brochure for decking material (you know that stuff you put on porches instead of floorboards – so old school) by a company called Certainteed. It’s made from a material called EcoTech. Must be friendly, right? You bet it is. This is made, as they brag, with “maple wood flour” and the finest PVC. PVC! Okay, so not only does EcoTech decking contain one of the most toxic materials known, with one of the most damaging manufacturing processes known (short of say, a nuclear fission plant), it also creates one of these completely non-reusable hybrid bio-industrial products that can never be reused or recycled, but goes straight in the ground. This is one of the least eco-friendly products you could imagine, as if the design spec said to create decking that was as harmful as possible. I guess if you spin it enough, you can make people believe anything. Screw them.
Why do I care? Because this just absolutely burns me because I know people who think that this is a responsible product (save trees and last a long time and that’s good, right?). No, lasting a long time is not good when the product is poisonous to produce, use and destroy and by “a long time” you mean 10,000 years. I think this is as deceptive if not more so than the tobacco industry tactics with filter cigarettes. Anyway, so I wrote to Certainteed and asked them to change the product name and I am urging everyone else to do the same.
Contact the sons of bitches (no offense to puppies intended):
In the comments on the contact form, make a note like this: “As a consumer, I am deeply disappointed that Certainteed has named its ecological irresponsible PVC decking material EcoTech. I consider this deceptive and request that Certainteed change the name or, better yet, change to a product that is in fact eco-friendly.
Read up on PVC:
- PVC: A Health Hazard From Production through Disposal by Paul Goettlich
- Polyvinyl chloride – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- PVC: Recycling Killer, Public Health Menace
Popularity: 10% [?]
Add to: 
del.icio.us •
furl •
reddit
•
digg •
technorati cosmos
November 20th, 2006 at 2:41 pm
Not to bash anyone, but I am curious how many products you use that are damaging to the environment. I do agree that maybe the company shouldn’t advertise that it is “eco-friendly”, but I am sure there are plenty of products that we all use that are damaging to the environment. If we want all this great technology, there are just some facts that we have to face. Just something to think about.
Mike
December 3rd, 2006 at 4:45 am
I totally agree. In fact, I even buy products with PVC in them. My issue is with deceptive advertising. It’s like selling an incandescent lightbuld and calling it the “eco-bulb” because it has a green film on the bulb. If they called it “Dura-Dek” I wouldn’t have an issue. I just think they’re trying to get ill-informed people whose consciences are eased by throwing #7 plastic in the recycling (it’s NOT recycled folks) to also feel ever so eco about installing PVC decking.