How much of our furniture, cabinetry, and home construction uses plywood or MDF? These wood composites are bound with adhesives that make the materials non-recyclable and toxic.
Maplex, however, is produced using only water, heat, and pressure. This makes the material completely non-toxic and biodegradable.
Maplex is made from 100 percent unbleached softwood fibers from sustainably managed forests. It can be cut, painted, and stained like other, more conventional, wood composites.
The Maplex website describes the two types of Maplex available: Maplex C, a medium-density, highly flexible version that can be rolled and formed; and Maplex P, a stronger, high-density version with good dimensional stability (twice the bending and tensile strength of birch plywood). Both can be punched, drilled, laminated, stained, or coated, and are suitable for most interior applications.
Treehugger shows us a chair, designed by Erika Hanson, using molded Maplex. -regina
© 2009 Apartment Therapy
And without looking, I'm going to go out on a limb and say this stuff will run around $200 / sheet. Usually being eco-wise costs money unfortunately.
Recyclability is one thing. Use of renewable materials is another. So, even though it may not be possible to recycle most wood composites, they are at least made from a renewable and biodegradable resource (trees).
no david, most composite wood products are no longer biodegradable since they are drenched in synthetic glues. well, i suppose formaldehyde is biodegradable, but... they can not be safely burned, mulched or reused. the dust from mdf is highly toxic to humans.
I'm happy to see this topic on AT. One thing most people don't consider about finishes, glues, and MDF, etc. is the off gasing that occurs. Living with newly built furniture made with toxins can literally kill you, albeit slowly.
I agree that eco friendly (and organic food for goodness sake - I know, that's where my bucks go) is expensive, but one needs to weigh the pros and comes with each purchase depending on who you are and what your personal health/environmental concerns are.
Goodness, talk about a typo, I meant "cons" instead of "comes". So sorry.
no dug, I was not addressing recyclability or biodegradability. I was addressing only the renewability of wood as a resource -- since we can always plant more trees (unlike, say, oil... which is finite).