News: Raintube Achieves Rare Eco-Manufacturing Milestone
July 19, 2008
GetwithGreen.com would like to congratulate RainTube who recently achieved the Gold Level Cradle-To-Cradle Certification from MBDC. RainTube is one of only eleven in world to reach this environmental milestone.
MBDC was founded in 1995 to promote the “Next Industrial Revolution” through the new paradigm called Cradle-to-Cradle Design implementing eco-effective principles. Instead of designing products based on the ?take-make-waste? model of the last century (‘cradle-to-grave’), Cradle-to-Cradle Design helps to eliminate waste entirely.
For more information on MBDC, visit their website at: http://www.mbdc.com/
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10 Best Green Home Remodeling Products for 2007
December 14, 2007
2008 is fast approaching, and the team at GetWithGreen.com is stopping now to recognize a few of our favorite eco-friendly home improvement products for 2007. These products are assembled together under one roof: GetWithGreen.com’s 10 Best Green Home Remodeling Products for 2007.
GetWithGreen.com’s 10 Best Green Home Remodeling Products for 2007 consists of manufacturers (or categories) who deliver eco-friendly products, which make our planet a greener place. These products help us conserve, help us reuse, help us recycle, or help us become less reliant on existing harmful resources. We also looked heavily at the popularity of these products with you, our readers.
Let’s give a GetWithGreen.com Thumbs up to our 10 Best Green Home Remodeling Products for 2007:
1) Cyber-Rain ? ?The smartest, greenest, and easiest irrigation system on the planet.?
The Cyber-Rain XCI System caused quite a bit of stir at GetWithGreen.com in 2007. It was one of the most widely read stories, and for good reason. Resetting the sprinkler timer at every change of season, or for un-seasonal weather changes, just isn?t practical ? and we don?t do it! Instead we just let our sprinklers turn on when it is not necessary, and we waste our most precious resource. The Cyber-Rain XCI System made it to our list because it automatically adjusts our sprinklers depending on the weather forecast, thus greatly reducing water usage, and associated needless run-off.
2) EcoTop- The next generation recycled paper and wood composite countertop
Countertops are one of the most popular remodel topics on the web today, so it was only fitting that one material made it into the GetWithGreen.com 10 Best for 2007. This year we?ve talked about just about every type of alternative to granite, and our top pick for 2007 is the new material called EcoTop. Following up success at PaperStone, Joel Klippert has another winner here with EcoTop. We expect big things from his team in 2008 as their color pallet increases, and they go broader in distribution! Again we expect this one to be a game changer in 2008, and probably Read more
ROOFING: Leaves beginning to fall, and RainTube picks up top honors!
November 14, 2007
Fall is here and the leaves are starting to fill your gutters, unless you have RainTube that is. We covered this product several months ago, and it remains one of our favorites here at GetWithGreen.com.
This week the RainTube team garnered several awards at the Green Building Industry Awards. Read on below, and make sure you check out RainTube’s product made from 100% recycled materials…
RainTube product recognized for outstanding achievement in environmental sustainability — Wins Four International Green Building Industry Awards.
GLI Systems Inc. of Jacksonville, Oregon, manufacturer of the RainTube Gutter Protection System, has been awarded an unprecedented four 2007 Green Building Pages Benchmark Sustainability Awards for Outstanding Achievement in Environmental and Social Sustainability. The awards were presented at the US Green Building Council ?Build Green Exposition? in Chicago, the world?s largest building products exposition focused on sustainable, eco-friendly building products and methods. RainTube won in four of seven categories including:
- The top award ? The Sustainable Product Award ? for the highest overall product sustainability rating,
- The Global Climate Change Award,
- The End of Product Life Award, and
- The Installation, Use and Maintenance Award. Read more
ROOFING: An eco-friendly option to keep leaves out of your gutters
August 7, 2007
Fall will be here soon, and the tree leaves will find their way into the gutters on your new roof to clog your downspouts – resulting in potential water damage, dryrot or mold on/around your newly remodeled home. There are several types of solutions to help prevent gutter clogging, and here is one eco-friendly option that we wanted to bring to your attention.
The RainTube System is a tubular piping system that fits snuggly into your existing or new gutters. The system is designed to prevent large debris such as leaves and pine needles from entering. Tiny particles such as dust, fine seeds, and roof grit may still enter, but with proper sloping and drainage these particles will remain in solution and flush out through the downspouts according to the RainTube team.
The RainTube team outlines the installation process as follows:
- Your gutters and downspouts are inspected to ensure they are in good condition
- All gutters and downspouts are cleaned.
- RainTube technology is fit into your existing gutters.
RainTube is manufactured by GLI Systems Inc., and it is made from 100% post-consumer high-density polyethylene (HDPE), and can be recycled again if needed. The products are manufactured in Oregon. Ballpark pricing for the product is $5-6/ft (that includes installation) – pretty good!
Some interesting recycled plastic factoids from Raintube:
- The energy saved by recycling one plastic bottle will power a computer for 25 minutes.
- 17 one-gallon milk jugs are reused to make one 13′ length of RainTube.
- 227 one-gallon milk jugs are reused to protect the gutters of an average home with RainTube.
- There are about 1,000 milk jugs and other bottles in a recycled plastic party bench.
- If you lined up all the polystyrene cups made in just 1 day they would circle the earth.
- Americans toss out 14.4 million tons of plastic every year according to the Plastics Museum.
- Americans go through 2.5 million plastic bottles every hour.
- Half of all polyester carpet manufactured in the U.S. is made form recycled soda bottles.
Other products created from recycled plastics:
- 14 20-ounce green soda bottles = one extra-large T-shirt
- 85 20 ounce soda bottles = filling for one sleeping bag
- 96 one-gallon milk jugs = one 6 foot long piece of 2/4 plastic lumber
- 1,200 plastic bottles = one 200 pound railroad tie
- 68,000 milk jugs (reinforced with fiberglass) = one 30 foot long bridge in New Baltimore, NY
