Being green is not a black-and-white issue. All products have some green and some not-so-green characteristics. While there is no material with zero impact on our planet, there are many environmentally friendly countertop materials.

KEY CONSIDERATIONS

Because of the beating countertops take over their lifetime, durability and stain resistance are key considerations.

Carefully choosing your material and adopting common-sense practices, however, will allow you to minimize burns, stains, and cuts and have a beautiful, environmentally sound countertop that will be the envy of visitors to your home. 


LIFECYCLE THINKING

When weighing the pros and cons of different countertop materials, remember that your countertop’s environmental impact begins long before it is installed in your kitchen or bathroom and will continue after you dispose of it. Here is a basic rundown of key considerations:

• Raw materials: Are the materials used to create the countertop renewable or finite, and can they come from recycled products? Are they mined or harvested, and if so, how well managed are these processes? For example, mining the metals to produce stainless steel is very energy intensive and in some cases highly polluting, but stainless can be easily recycled. To go a step further, using salvaged material is often best for the environment since it avoids even the energy necessary to recycle.
   
• Manufacture: Materials that require less processing use less energy, and so have less impact. Ceramic tiles must be fired twice, consuming great amounts of energy, while untreated wood only has to be sawed and planed, using far less.
   
• Transport: The distance a material travels translates directly into air pollution from vehicle fuel combustion, which is responsible for emissions of sulfur and nitrous oxides, particulate matter, and carbon monoxide. Local materials from within a 500-mile radius are always preferable to reduce air pollution, since emissions can lead to acid rain, ground-level ozone formation, increased asthma rates, and breathing difficulty, according to the U.S. EPA.
   
• Installation: Dust from sawing and grinding as well as VOCs and other chemicals from adhesives can make your home inhospitable during and after installation. Check with your installer to minimize these impacts.
  
  
• Use and maintenance: In place, materials may offgas formaldehyde, VOCs, or other chemicals, but selecting specific materials with low impacts on air quality will cut emissions. For example, look for laminates without formaldehyde in their particleboard backing. Durability is also a major factor, directly linked to a material’s lifespan and how often it must be replaced. Laminates are not very durable, but can last 20 years with conscientious care. Using low-impact cleaning materials will ensure that this care is not at the expense of your indoor air quality.
  
• End of life: Where will your countertop end up when its life is over? Can it be recycled, reconditioned and reused, downcycled into other products, or will it simply be sent to a landfill? Making your unwanted materials available for other uses helps avoid the extraction impacts of mining and keeps harmful chemicals out of the environment. For example, crushing concrete for use as aggregate in new concrete avoids mining of more aggregate.

Laminates
Laminates are resin-impregnated paper glued to a particleboard backing. The particleboard backing typically has high VOC levels, and the laminates are most often glued to cabinet boxes using high-VOC glues. However, compared to plastic-based solid surfaces, laminates use a very small amount of resin.

Though laminates are not considered green, if the paper and plastic come from recycled sources, their impact can be reduced. Look for laminates made of recycled plastics and recycled, formaldehyde-free paper, that use nontoxic low-VOC glues for installation or that avoid glues by using mechanical fasteners. In terms of air quality, look for laminates that have been certified by Greenguard as low-emitting materials. When installing laminates, avoid first installing plywood (which typically offgasses VOCs) on top of the cabinet boxes. The laminate’s backing should ideally be mechanically fastened to the cabinets, to preserve air quality.

Laminates are inexpensive and easy to clean, but they are easily marred by heat and nicks if not treated with care, so always use trivets and cutting boards in the kitchen. In the bathroom or laundry room there is less danger of damage, as laminates are chemical resistant. Their lifespan is relatively short: typically 10 to 20 years, depending on how well you treat them.

Laminates are not recyclable, and are difficult to remove and reuse if glued in place, so they quickly end up in landfills. This puts them behind many other counter choices environmentally.

Stone
There is a wide range of stone available as countertop material. Stone is a natural material, but is not renewable or recyclable; it can only be downcycled into smaller slabs for other applications. Because it is quarried, it can have high environmental impact and can take a lot of energy to produce.

Buying locally helps reduce energy used in transit. Granite is popular, but is only environmentally preferable in states like New Hampshire where it is quarried. There are granite quarries in California as well, but serpentine (which is similar to soapstone) would be lower impact in California, since it is abundant and mined closer to the surface. Salvaged stone is sometimes available at salvage yards and avoids mining impacts altogether.

Stone is extremely durable and will last as long as your house, with certain caveats. Placing very hot materials on stone counters may damage the sealer used to increase water- and stain-resistance. Without being sealed, stone can easily be stained, especially by oils, and can be susceptible to bacteria if the type of stone is porous. If grinding and polishing take place in the home during installation, make sure dust is minimized.