Earth-Friendly ‘Around the Home’ Tips for America Recycles Day

‘Tis the season for heating, shopping…and recycling. This week Keep America Beautiful continues its annual America Recycles Day effort. The campaign is a great reminder for Americans to keep consumption of materials and energy in check and to recycle when possible. While some Americans may think this is easier said than done—especially in the midst of holiday gifting and winter’s cooling temperatures—small efforts can go a long way. CertainTeed, a leading provider of earth-friendly building solutions, offers homeowners a few tips:

Explore Earth-conscious remodeling. America loves to remodel. Why not remodel in a way that regards the environment? Refresh interiors with low VOC paint. Choose ENERGY STAR® qualified appliances. Refurbish furniture. Even exterior products like siding and trim can be made of recycled materials. CedarBoards™Insulated Siding, for instance, is made of as much as 60 percent recycled content. It also offers the added thermal benefit of rigid foam insulation. And with 21 percent recycled content, Restoration Millwork® is the only cellular PVC trim on the market to incorporate post-consumer recycled material, which further diverts usable material from being landfilled. Earth-conscious remodeling has never been so easy.

Batt an eye at insulation. A properly insulated home delivers lower energy costs. Crawlspaces and basements need insulation just as much as bathrooms, laundry rooms, kitchens, bedrooms and exterior walls. If a wall is cool to the touch during fall, winter or spring, it may need additional insulation. A well-insulated home is an energy-efficient home.

Collect rain. Rainwater can replace faucet water in many instances. Using easy-to-install rain barrels, homeowners can collect 300 gallons of water for every inch of rain that falls on 500 square feet of roof. That’s a good deal of water for houseplants, gardens and the lawn.

Harness the sun. The sun is giving power to more homes than ever before. Installation of solar roofing, such as CertainTeed’s Solstice® rack-mounted system and Apollo® II roof integrated systems, have been on the rise in recent years in residential areas. Recycling the sun’s rays can reduce a homeowner’s pressure on the energy grid and homeowners in some states can recoup the cost of their solar panels in three to five years through energy savings and government-issued rebates.

Don’t trash recyclables. Ultimately, most trash can be recycled. Keep America Beautiful offers people a cheat sheet on what can be recycled. Aluminum cans, glass bottles, unwanted mail, shampoo bottles, plastic caps and more can be recycled and reused. Even garden cuttings and kitchen scraps can be turned into compost that can feed your or your neighbor’s garden.

For more information, visit www.certainteed.com.

Images, product samples and industry comments are available upon request. To speak to an expert, contact Vicky Gallagher of CertainTeed Corporation at Victoria.M.Gallagher@Saint-Gobain.com or 610-341-7944.

About CertainTeedThrough the responsible development of innovative and sustainable building products, CertainTeed, headquartered in Valley Forge, Pa., has helped shape the building products industry for more than 100 years. Founded in 1904 as General Roofing Manufacturing Company, the firm's slogan “Quality Made Certain, Satisfaction Guaranteed,” quickly inspired the name CertainTeed. Today, CertainTeed® is North America’s leading brand of exterior and interior building products, including roofing, siding, fence, decking, railing, trim, insulation, gypsum and ceilings.

A subsidiary of Saint-Gobain, the world’s largest building products company, CertainTeed and its affiliates have more than 5,700 employees and more than 60 manufacturing facilities throughout the United States and Canada. For six consecutive years, the company has received top honors from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for its contributions in protecting the environment and was most recently the recipient of the 2014 ENERGY STAR Sustained Excellence Award. The group had total sales of approximately $3.3 billion in 2013. www.certainteed.com.###