The United States wasn't always at the forefront of developing environmentally conscious coatings in paint. However, the House of Representatives passed the Green Chemistry Research and Development Act in 2005. This bill didn't become law, but it did increase awareness of green chemistry practices and foreshadowed the future of an environmentally conscious industry.
Federal policy and increased consumer interest drove the production and innovation of environmentally-friendly products to become the norm. Green coatings aren't a brand-new transformation in the painting industry, however.
House painting In ancient Egypt, Europe, and Asia, different groups would blend natural, raw pigments like turmeric with egg yolk or plant oil to make paint – and they've done this for centuries. As in the past, paint has two functions: to decorate one's home and to protect.
In the early 1900s, mass production began, which included pigments, binders, additives, and solvents, and inevitably included volatile organic compounds VOCs. VOCs come with a multitude of problems for cities as well as people, including smog formation in cities and headaches, nausea, and long-term health problems in humans. Up until 1960, paint could theoretically have as many VOCs and lead as paint manufacturers wanted.
In the mid-1960's, everything changed. By 1966, Los Angeles instituted Rule 66 to curb rampant air pollution. The Rule limited VOCs in solvents and coatings. The Clean Air Act, a federal measure drawn up to mimic L.A.'s groundbreaking law, went into effect the following year. 189 toxins were added by the United States government in 1990 to the Clean Air Act; these toxins had to be reduced by law. The Environmental Protection Agency also listed pollution sources by area and indicated which carbon compounds didn't produce smog and were exempt from VOC regulations.
While some may believe that government regulations prevent creativity, the above policies have thus far inspired new innovations. The coating industry has four main avenues of exploration: water-based, powder, high-solid, and radiation-curable coatings. The most popular coating of the four was and is water-based.
Glidden Company introduced the first VOC-free coatings in 1992. These coatings unfortunately cost more than the usual coatings, so consumers didn't buy them. However, other innovations were taking shape. It seemed that petroleum-based monomers, which are key ingredients in paint films, could be replaced by monomers taken from castor or soy oil. While vegetable oil was inexpensive and plentiful, it could produce paint that didn't weather well or yellowed.
The government, while enacting policies, didn't have any plans to develop universal standards for green coatings, so nonprofit groups took over that job. Green Seal is one such group and the most widely known; other groups include Environmental Home Center, Building Green whose "Green Spec" director lists environmentally-friendly products online, and the U.S. Green Building Council, which is the creator of LEED certification. LEED certification takes into consideration indoor environmental quality and materials, among other things. Green Seal possesses a GS-11, a standard for regular paint, which looks at a product's overall environmental performance and its lifecycle. The EPA's Green Chemistry Institute GCI also creates eco-friendly initiatives and awards innovators in certain categories, including "alternative solvent pathways."
The VOC regulations in Europe are unlike America's in that they look at chemicals' volatility more closely than their reactivity. Therefore, speedy evaporating solvents that the U.S. may let pass will not with the European Union, and substances with a boiling point above 250 degrees Celsius are exempt from EU regulations. The U.S. should follow in the European Union's example in that they strictly adhere to their policies and guidelines. The American coatings industry is being forced to go greener because of material and energy costs, manpower, and rising insurance premiums associated with conventional processes and products.
Sustainable chemistry is an exciting new trend in the eco-friendly coatings industry. Green chemistry does require total biodegradation of products the "total environmental performance," which was previously stated, and sustainable chemistry credits reusing and/or recycling as real solutions the "lifecycle approach". The latter strategy's primary advantage is lower cost. Presently, the International Center for Sustainable Chemistry is joining forces with the EPA to review cost-effective sustainable alternatives to past, traditional methods; the GCI is also looking at sustainability closely.
For these green alternatives to be successful in today's market, green coatings need not only to perform as well as their conventional counterparts, but they also should be affordable and not cost more. The development of eco-friendly products by many companies is due in large part to consumer awareness of the environment. This innovation isn't just taking place in the United States and Europe, but also in Brazil, where a company called Braskem has invented a high-density polyethylene made from sugarcane-based ethanol. So while green coatings help our planet, they also are a smart investment for manufacturers and just make good business sense.