Why Aluminum

Aluminum's inherently sustainable characteristics combined with the extrusion process make extruded aluminum the green building industry's material of choice for now and the future.

• For a material or product to be considered green, it should have low impact on the environment and therefore favor environmentalism—the practice of protecting and conserving the natural environment and its resources. Aluminum is one such material.

• Aluminum is recyclable, sustainable, and versatile; three key qualities for any material being used to construct a green building. Historically, aluminum has proven to be one of the most important materials in successful recycling programs. Aluminum offers high scrap value, widespread consumer acceptance, and aluminum recycling enjoys significant industry support.

Using recycled building materials saves substantial total energy otherwise used for material production. Producing recycled aluminum building materials reduces pollution emissions and energy use, taking only five percent of the energy needed to produce raw aluminum from bauxite.  Jerry Powell, Editor, Resource Recycling says, "Many construction materials are hard, if not impossible, to recycle, and this is a negative factor when wishing to undertake a sustainable construction project. This is not the case, however, for aluminum as a building product. The sizable energy savings attained when scrap aluminum is re-melted makes the recovered metal very valuable."

VINYL (PVC)

There are some obvious advantages to Vinyl (PVC) windows over aluminum, like cost and the inherent energy efficiency, but the argument rages on as to whether Vinyl windows and doors are environmentally friendly or not. 

• The process that is required to make PVCs is highly toxic and this in turn leads to toxic by-products. On top of this, the point is made that the biggest problem with regard to PVC windows and doors is their disposal at the end of their useful life – which seems to range between 10 and 30 years. Some say that PVC is very easy to recycle but others counter by pointing out that in practice very few PVC windows are recycled because of the difficulty in separating the component parts. Neither can they be incinerated because of their composition.

• PVC windows over time discolor!! Some go yellow and while this is bad enough, others go a sort of pink! In climates similar to Arizona where we have year round sunshine, the discoloration is a serious problem. You cannot paint PVC windows like wood or aluminum.

• Very bad weather or severe extremes of weather can cause cracking, expanding or warping to double glazed Vinyl windows, another issue in our southwestern desert.

• Once vinyl windows are in, they cannot be easily taken apart if they are in need of repair. Even something simple like changing a pane of glass becomes more difficult and more structural repairs become very hard. This can make them more expensive to maintain, versus an aluminum or wood window.