Steel is regarded as one of the metal materials that a building can use, but what you probably did not know is that these can be environment friendly. In building construction, there are different forms of steel that can be used such as steel round, steel flat bar, steel sheet, steel tube, and other steel materials. But what are the reasons why steel is considered as a green material?
1. Steel can be recycled. According to statistics, it is the most recycled material in North America. Since they are fully recyclable, landfill space and the raw materials used to make steel are saved. When you compare recycled materials, there are even more of these which come from steel than glass, aluminum, and plastic all together. When steel used as frames in buildings have already reached its life span, steel can still be used for other purposes or sold as crap materials. It can also be recycled to form as another material for new steel.
2. Steel can be used to facilitate proper ventilation within a building, as long as it is used with other thermal materials. The combination enables minimal cooling and heating loss. It also facilitates ventilation with the use of windows, doors, roofing, and foundation. This way, you can save up on your cooling or heating costs. Steel does not warp which makes it durable to gaps and cracks.
3. Steel produces less waste to be thrown to landfills. As an example, a 2,000 square foot steel frame for a house will only have a cubic yard of scrap. This is because while steel is still in the refinery plant, they are cut out in exact lengths to make the entire length useful, without lacking or extra length. Those waste materials in the refinery for steel are also recycled to form more steel.
4. Steel framing will save more trees, thus save the environment. This will give forests the time to regenerate their trees. In North America, forests only have an estimated ten percent of trees left. The other ninety percent has already been harvested and used for various purposes, mostly for the construction of commercial buildings and houses. With the help of the recyclable steel, forests will have new trees again. Moreover, wildlife will also be saved.
5. Steel materials such as steel round, steel sheet or steel flat bar are allergy free and nontoxic to the health of the people around.
6. Steel framing, when compared to wood framing, is definitely more environment friendly. Steel framing uses steel material that is at least 28 percent recycled. Since steel comes from a renewable resource, the continuous recycling of steel will give time for the sources to recover and regenerate their supplies for a certain time in the future. A home which is 2,000 square foot with wood framing will need about forty to fifty trees. In the forest, this number of trees will make up an acre. This is already a huge amount of space taken from the home of the wildlife resources.