Green virtues of vinyl
For example, a 1999 study, Environmental and Economic Impact Analysis—Flooring Materials, the U.S. Department of Commerce (DoC) attempted to establish a yardstick for measuring various manufacturers’ Green product claims.
In preparing their study, the department eventually selected six criteria to measure a product’s overall eco-friendliness.
- Solid waste (i.e. impact upon the waste stream).
- IAQ {i.e. impact upon the indoor environment).
- Nutrifaction/eutrophication (i.e. impact upon the facilitation of unhealthful organisms).
- Acidification (i.e. impact upon acid rain generation).
- Global warming (i.e. impact upon the planet’s average ambient temperature).
- Resource depletion (i.e. impact upon consumption of natural resources; including fossil fuels).
DoC compared typical daily use and disposal, along with the products’ manufacturing, transportation, and installation processes—in short, a life-cycle analysis (LCA).
For the solid waste criteria, vinyl surfacing was deemed better for the environment overall than linoleum because it lasted longer once installed (especially higher-grade and sheet vinyl surfaces), resulting in less waste over time.16 (For example, 70 percent of all vinyl goes into products in use for a decade or longer.)