Ethical Decking?

novice_money_saver_2

Is there such a thing as sustainable/ethical garden decking?

We'd like to deck a small part of our garden but I'm concerned about where the wood comes from.

Any ideas?

geordie_joe

novice_money_saver wrote: »

We'd like to deck a small part of our garden but I'm concerned about where the wood comes from.

Any ideas?

Trees :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

Sorry, couldn't resist that.

If you thought about it a couple of weeks ago you could have popped down to Hastings and gotten some free wood.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/7217729.stm

Don't believe the story about it being washed off a ship, it was a flat pack pier that came without any instructions.

Seriously, reclaimed timber would be your best bet.

moonrakerz

geordie_joe wrote: »

Don't believe the story about it being washed off a ship, it was a flat pack pier that came without any instructions.
.

IKEA have obviously changed their delivery contractor !

Ben84

I've seen composite wood-like products that are made from plastic bottles. It's not perfect recycling, but it's a second use for something we would otherwise shove in a landfill, and it's certainly not contributing to trees being chopped down.

novice_money_saver_2

geordie_joe wrote: »

Trees :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

Sorry, couldn't resist that.

I was asking for it wasn't I?

Zazen999

I thought wood WAS sustainable???

Ben84

Zazen999 wrote: »

I thought wood WAS sustainable???

Yes and no. In the natural environment trees and plants keep will growing again and again, but when they die they rot back down in to the soil and return the nutrients and minerals they extracted when growing and living.

However, when you grow trees intensively and remove them to make furniture and paper products, the soil becomes depleated. This is true with any crop. Trees also consume large amounts of ground water.

Tigsteroonie

Look for suppliers that use FSC-certified timber (Forestry Stewardship Council) - certifies that the timber comes from sustainable sources. I know that B&Q carry a lot of FSC-certified stuff, including my wooden toilet seat!

geordie_joe

Tigsteroonie wrote: »

Look for suppliers that use FSC-certified timber (Forestry Stewardship Council) - certifies that the timber comes from sustainable sources. I know that B&Q carry a lot of FSC-certified stuff, including my wooden toilet seat!

There was a documentary on the TV not long ago, well it must have been a while as it was the 20th anniversary of the "great storm of 87".

One of the things the forestry man said was that "nature does a far better job of regenerating forests than man can."

He was talking about not having enough money, or man power, to replace all the trees that had been blown down. What they found, after 20 years, was that the forests where they didn't have the resources to replace the trees did much better than the ones where they did replace the trees.

In other words, man trying to replant trees to replace those which have been blown, or cut down does a worse job than if he just left it to nature.

"Managed" forests are not as good as "unmanaged ones".

As one man put it "nature has been rejuvenating forests for billions of year, what made us come along and think we could do a better job".

Shanynee

We looked into decking our terrace last year but for various reasons did'nt go ahead with it. In our hunt for ethical choices though we came across this company based in Leytonstone in London who used reclaimed timber. Paid the place a visit and the range is really good
http://www.reclaimed.uk.com/

Also found this company but did'nt think the tiles looked as nice as the reclaimed wood
http://www.ecodeckuk.com/index.php