Page 9 - Green Builder March-April 2020 Issue

www.greenbuildermedia.com/news
Green Building NEWS

The Latest on Sustainability and Renewable Energy SURVEY: WHICH
TRADES WORK

HARDEST?

No matter what the trade or
specialty, most construction
work requires intense physical

labor.
HEN IT COMES TO WORKING IN the
construction industry, no participant thinks
W it’s easy. But painters and contractors have
it harder than the rest, according to a survey of 1,609
crafters and 652 consumers.
The survey “Tough Trades,” conducted by the lead
generation service CraftJack, notes that 61 percent of
painters and stainers believe their profession is the most
physically demanding. Fifty-four percent of carpenters
CREDIT: U.S. GREEN BUILDING COUNCIL their respective jobs as the most grueling. One in five
and another 54 percent of electricians also selected
consumers gave the nod to roofers as working hardest,
followed by those involved with demolition (15 percent).
Twenty-three percent of electricians believe their
jobs to be the hardest to learn, as did 38 percent of
consumers. Various other occupations (21 percent
each by contractors and consumers) and carpenters
(13 percent and 12 percent, respectively) were also
deemed “Most Difficult to Master.” Working warriors. All construction trades are hard, but consumers and contractors place demolition, roofing,
electrical and carpentry as the toughest of all. CREDIT: CRAFTJACK
The survey can be found at www.craftjack.com.

New Bio-Bug Targets Plastic

The polyurethane-eating bacteria could offer a better way to deal with Earth's plastic overload.

OLYURETHANE, A KEY COMPONENT IN EVERYTHING FROM Bug hunt.
kitchen sponges to building insulation—and one that is rarely Polyurethane foam
recycled—may become less of an insurmountable pollutant, insulation is among
P thanks to a newly discovered, hungry microbe. Researchers at the products that
the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research-UFZ in Leipzig, Germany can be kept out of
say a new strain of Pseudomonas bacteria can completely consume the PHOTO FLARE§FLICKR the landfill thanks
to a new form of
toxic plastic within weeks, providing a way to keep tons of the troublesome bacteria.
compound out of landfills.
More than 8 billion tons of plastic has been produced since the 1950s and energy. “While there is still much work to be done, this is exciting
and most has ended up polluting the world’s land and oceans, or in dumping and necessary research that demonstrates the power of looking to
grounds because it’s too difficult to recycle. Fittingly, the new bacterium nature to find valuable biocatalysts,” Heipieper says. “Understanding
was found at a waste site where plastic had been disposed of, according and harnessing such natural processes will open the door for innovative
to lead researcher Hermann Heipieper. recycling solutions.”
Researchers fed the microbe key chemical components of polyurethane
and discovered it can use the plastic as a sole source of carbon, nitrogen The institute’s study appears in the journal Frontiers in Microbiology.

www.greenbuildermedia.com March/April 2020 GREEN BUILDER 7

6-7 GB 0320 News.indd 7 4/8/20 3:13 PM