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 ForestPreserving Forests: Page 2 Most homes are constructed of wood. An average of 40 to 50 trees are needed to build a 2,000-square-foot wood-framed house (Bielski 1996). Building with stronger materials, such as steel, concrete, brick and stone, would spare millions of trees. Moreover, these materials are not vulnerable to infestations by termites, which destroy entire foundations and frameworks of buildings made of wood. To control these insects, pest control companies apply large quantities of extremely toxic pesticides that can leach into the soil and water table, killing wildlife, and pose hazards to the occupants of the house. The Institute of Ecolonomics in Ridgeway, Colorado, reports that a new tree-free "wood" has been developed for use as building material. Called BioComp, it contains half recycled plastic and half agricultural residue and, according to the Institute, is twice as strong as Douglas Fir, termite-proof, impervious to water, and can be made fire retardant. BioComp resembles wood and is easily molded, sawed and nailed. Some alternatives to wood are also less expensive. Steel is being used in New England homes for major support beams with a metal roof for less money than the same home would cost made of wood (Hotton 2001).
The Wood Reduction Clearinghouse has been formed in San Francisco to address the failure of considering consumption as a driving force in deforestation (Bielski 1996). A group of leading environmentalists issued a statement in 1995 calling for a 75 percent reduction in wood and paper use by 2025, and strategies for eliminating the need for wood altogether are being explored (Bielski 1996). The use of timber for shipping crates and concrete molds--especially tropical hardwoods--should be phased out and substitutes, such as plastics, phased in that would be more economical because they could be reused. Some stores are already using substitutes for the millions of cardboard cartons used to ship goods.
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