[GreenYes] Re: Green Concrete?

[Robert Kirby <kirbgood@no.address>]

i agree that permeable pavement is a good thing, but I just can't let  
over-the-top green-washing pass.

The manufacture of Portland Cement is the second (to the production  
of steel) largest industrial generator of greenhouse gases in the  
world.  If you include the limestone industry that services the  
cement industry, it is the largest.  The industry has historically  
been opposed to any recognition or regulation of its CO2 emissions.   
It also lobbied mightily to increase the budget of the recent federal  
roads boondoggle, and to keep public transportation out of the bill.

The one factual question i have to the excerpt below is: so where do  
the heavy metals go after they filter into the concrete?  They just  
kind of disappear without leaching into the soil?  And the  
hydrocarbons?  The concrete naturally spawns hydrocarbon-eating  
microbes?  If the microbes are in the concrete, are they not in the  
soil?  Then why don't we just dump waste oil on the ground and let  
the wonderful microbes eat it?  I think some people near the pipeline  
in Alaska might question that.  Hell, I think people with wells  
living near the local gas station might question that.

Concrete is an integral part of our daily lives, and a necessary  
material.  I simply hate seeing an industry without good  
environmental credentials thump its chest about a particular product  
and ignore the rest.

Bob Kirby


On Mar 27, 2006, at 4:25 PM, Concrete Is Green wrote:

Pervious
Concrete mitigates the heavy metals, oils, & grease from cars, and from
adjacent asphalt pavement, as well as fertilizers from lawns.  This is
a highly effective way to return to a more natural system where
pollutants are mitigated by the pervious concrete and the microbes that
naturally colonize the moist, aerobic environment it creates.

--~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "GreenYes" group.
To post to this group, send email to GreenYes@no.address
To unsubscribe from this group, send email to GreenYes-unsubscribe@no.address
For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/GreenYes
-~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---