|
How Can XPS Insulation Benefit the Environment?
With growing concerns about the threat of global climate change, it’s important to look at various sustainable materials to see how they interact with the environment. What is one of the easiest and most environmentally-responsible building materials available today? . . . XPS insulation products.
XPS has net positive energy conservation and air emission benefits when used in residential and commercial buildings over their normal life spans—typically between 15-50 years. This is because far more energy is saved over time than is consumed by manufacturing XPS insulation. XPS reduces greenhouse gases by minimizing the effects from harmful air emissions that result from the production of energy.
Energy efficiency–another leading environmental benefit–is defined largely as a cost-effective way to reduce energy consumption through existing and improved building products technologies as well as through sound energy use practices.
Choices For Environmentally Sound Building Principles Are To:
- Reduce,
- Reuse and
- Recycle.
The use of XPS products, especially insulating sheathing, reduces the amount of energy (i.e., gas, oil and electric) required to maintain comfortable living environments. Thus, energy loss in buildings is greatly reduced. The net effect of which means widespread use of XPS has a profound effect on reducing consumption of our natural resources.
XPS is manufactured from polystyrene resin, which is a thermoplastic material. This means that it can be melted and re-inserted into the manufacturing process to produce new XPS insulation. In fact, XPS manufacturing plants create virtually no ‘scrap’ or waste material. This is because essentially 100% of the industrial waste XPS boards are recovered, ground-up, re-pelletized back into the polystyrene resin material, and reused in the XPS manufacturing process. Some XPS companies even seek outside sources of scrap polystyrene resin to reuse for this purpose. In addition, post-consumer XPS insulation boards can be reused in many commercial applications—especially re-roofing. For more information on re-roofing, click here: http://www.xpsa.com/comm/roofs/reroofing.html
It must be noted that while post-consumer recycled polystyrene can be used in the XPS manufacturing process. the collection infrastructure for such recycling efforts in the U.S. currently does not exist to support it. Past initiatives made by the XPS industry to collect polystyrene food trays and recycle them into post-consumer XPS insulation boards failed because it was not economically-feasible. Should the situation change, polystyrene can be easily recycled into new XPS products once contaminants are removed.
The sustainable benefits of using XPS insulation are numerous, including
- high thermal performance,
- excellent compressive strength and
- condensation control.
Most notably, the thermal insulating properties of XPS provide both energy-efficiency and environmental benefits.
|
