[GSBN] The EU wants 5% strawbuildings by 2020 says the Economist..

[John Glassford]

G ' day Balers

Been a while since I contributed on GSBN been kind of busy working.

I am not happy with the term "greenwash."  Simply makes no sense at all to
me.

If we are serious about the environment and global warming and believe it
does and is happening, then surely using straw in all it's forms should be
our mission.  Australia is a small country, population wise, and I am told
that around 126,000 new homes are built each year.  Our population is
around 23 million.

Our rice farmers in the South of New South Wales burn annually 1 million
tonnes of rice straw.  Rice is not a big crop compared to wheat.  I have no
idea how much wheat straw is burnt annually, several million tonnes at a
guess.

However 1 million tonnes of straw will build aprox. 44,000 three bed room
homes.  We have no chance of getting our builders and architects building
this number of bale homes annually too much at stake for the BIG companies
who produce treated pine, concrete, bricks and steel.

As long as we see straw bale as a niche market and a  small one at that
then we will never walk the talk.  I love what Modcell are doing and we
will do our bit with our
SITUPS<http://glassford.com.au/main/sit-up-example/>over the next few
years and we hope that builders will "situp" and take
note.

On the point made about using a raw material from a by product of large
commercial grain farms and not being a safe material, what nonsense.  How
safe is treated pine or acrylic paints or carpets so on and so forth.  What
damage does PVC do?

Life is full of compromise and compromise we must to make use of a
wonderful product that we call straw no matter where it comes from or how
it is grown.

If we can show the building professionals that straw bale panels or straw
bales can be commercially viable then it is our duty to do so.  I have been
on this list for many years now and will continue to contribute my
thoughts.  I do not mean to offend the writers BUT:

Greenwash my foot!

Kind regards
The Straw Wolf
Huff 'n' Puff Constructions
http://www.glassford.com.au
61 2 6927 6027
In Australia (02) 6927 6027
Mobile 0412 11 61 57
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