Setting Priorities

Eco Priority Guide: Kitchens

Eco-Priorities

The following issues relate to both potential positive and negative issues associated with each product class:

Priority Order

Benchtop stone

Timber

Joinery carcass

Laminate

Finishes, Stainless Steel

Floors & Walls

Appliances

Refer ‘Materials’ - stone

Refer ‘Timber’

Refer ‘Plastics’

Refer ‘Metals’

Refer ‘Floors’, ‘Paints’

Refer ‘Water’

Example

Granite benchtop

Timber benchtop, veneers on cupboards

Chipboard or MDF frame for joinery.

Laminate benchtops or cupboards

Stainless steel use domestic or commercial

Timber, tile, vinyl floors

Sinks, taps, dishwasher, oven

Overview

The kitchen is the heart of many Australian homes, and in commercial or residential applications the site of many of the most resource intensive activities. In Australia about 23% of domestic GHGs are generated in the kitchen through cooking and refrigeration, and about 13% of domestic water use is associated with the residential kitchen (Commonwealth of Australia 2002). The selection of materials impacts directly on the health of the space users (for example through VOCs), and the selection of eco-preferable products, such as low-flow taps, impacts profoundly on the performance of the building as a whole whether domestic or commercial.

Quick Guide

Benchtop, Stone

For:

· Durability

· Readily cleaned

· Reusability

· High value – potential for reuse good

Against:

· Typically imported – energy loads

· Often require high VOC chemical sealant to prevent absorption. These are often factory applied and continue to emit VOCs for long time after installation

· High potential water use and contamination in factory polishing unless Clean Manufacturing techniques used

Benchtop, Timber

For:

· Reasonably durable

· High value – some potential for reuse

· Low/ zero harmful VOCs if finish natural hard finishing oils used

· No ongoing harmful VOCs if natural oils used

· Certified and recycled timber laminated benchtops available

Against:

· Potentially from at-risk forests or ecosystems

· High VOCs if polyurethane (PUR) sealant used

· Ongoing VOCs from reapplication of PUR over time

· Re-application of PUR requires complete stripping of bench

Joinery Carcass – chipboard and MDF

For:

· Wood product probably locally grown

· Low emission EO and E1 emission class products are available

Against:

· VOCs from predominantly urea formaldehyde glues

· Reuse potential poor, partly result of particularity of most kitchen designs, partly due to use of glue-fixings, low value of substrate, poor potential for repeated fixing.

Laminate

For:

· Highly durable

· Low VOC emission

Against:

· Recycling not practical – landfill likely disposal route

· Potential VOCs from (typically high emission) chipboard substrate- alternatives available

Stainless Steel

For:

· Durability

· High-value – reuse or recycling likely

· Inert – no VOCs

Against:

· Very high energy inputs, toxics associated with stainless steel production

· Cleaning requirements due to appearance characteristics and cleaning requirements (use of caustic solutions)

Making a Decision

Commentary

Most residential kitchens end up in the dumpster, with a large associated body of wastes that are highly mixed – glues, mastics, laminated chipboards that are impractical to recycle, broken tiles and the like. Joinery is screwed and glued together, it typically has poor edge strength, and the potential for disassembly & reuse is very low. Kitchens are one of the hardest areas to minimise impacts on.

As a general rule wherever possible use solid timber, mechanically fixed, with minimum compositing with non-like materials. This will lead to a higher capital cost, but higher potential for reuse. An eco-advantage option that may be more cost-competitive is the use of ultra-low VOC MDF products now being manufactured in Australia.

Wherever possible heavy products, for example tiles, should be sourced locally. There is a good range of Australian-made ceramic tile products available for floor and wall applications.

Ultra-low and zero VOC paints are also available, some with excellent wash & wear capabilities.

In many domestic kitchens a strong argument can be made for an unsealed tiled floor (zero VOCs), or a natural cork floor (most cork manufacturers will not warranty their products without high VOC high embodied energy polyurethane coatings.

The embodied energy figures (refer ‘Embodied Energy’) give some guidance on the relative intensity of materials used in the kitchen – but does not give a sense of the quantities used. Only in some areas are comparisons useful:

Joinery carcasses – some comparative embodied energy figures

Material	MJ/Kg	Comment
Chipboard	8.0	Approximately equivalent in terms of mass
KD Pine	3.4	Approximately equivalent in terms of mass
KD Hardwood	2.0	Heavier, but less required. Probably heavier overall.
Plastics general (virgin)	90	Sheet products can be used in special circumstances

Source: (Commonwealth of Australia 2002) section 3.1.

Decision-making guidelines (entry level)

Decision Making for Sustainability: a Global Guide

Project specific activities

Ongoing activities: Building Capacity

· Interrogating materials use by Guidelines 1-6.

· Data Quality checks

· Build understanding

· Send right signals

· Innovate and educate

· Contractor knowledge

Internet Resources

Kitchens: A vision on sustainable comfort

Seven Dutch companies from the kitchen and electronics branches have combined forces in developing a vision on sustainable comfort. The Eco Kitchen is the tangible and visible result, in which user convenience and energy consumption have been improved considerably.

Concrete results have been attained in the field of product innovation and electronic linking of appliances. All companies have worked together under the guidance of Syntens Arnhem and supported by Novem and the Province of Gelderland over a period of two years.

The results and the developed vision are made available to the general public by means of this website. The ideas and practical applications serve as an inspiring example of the advantages of cooperating in Environmentally conscious Product Development.’

There is also now an Australian Group specialising in the design and manufacture of eco-kitchens.

http://www.kijkopkeukens.nl/

References

Commonwealth of Australia (2002). Your Home. Canberra, Australian Greenhouse Office.