Green Options

A part of the environmental debate that hasn’t gotten a lot of attention made the pages of the March 2009 issue of Consumer Reports and it’s sure to raise some eyebrows. The offender? Interior paint.

Simran Sethi and Sarah Smarsh are writing a series on the surprising journeys of everyday things. They will be posting previews on Green Options before launching the posts on Huffington Post. Here’s a sneak peek at the desk you threw away.

How can a mahogany desk, made of slow-growing hard wood plundered from the Amazon, be eco-friendly?

When it’s re-used.

Often, the greenest consumer route is not buying new products made with Earth-friendly methods but rather scoring used products made with traditional, possibly heinous methods. Reduce, reuse, then recycle.

This rule of thumb certainly applies to office furniture. Unlike energy-consuming products such as appliances, furniture is somewhat innocuous to the environment during that period between factory and landfill known as “in use.” The impacts on indoor air quality, however, are like Britney: Not that innocent.

One the easiest ways to give your place a facelift is to slap on a fresh coat of paint. But beware of that new paint smell - it can do more damage than you think, even after it's dry. Here's a few things to consider if you're thinking about throwing some color on your walls.

The old standards on the paint market are normally oil based or water based (latex) paints.

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