This news article was originally written in Spanish. It has been automatically translated for your convenience. Reasonable efforts have been made to provide an accurate translation, however, no automated translation is perfect nor is it intended to replace a human translator. The original article in Spanish can be viewed at Materiales plásticos en la construcción. Declaraciones Ambientales de Producto

plastic materials in the construction. Environingingmental statements of Product

Gemma Botica Seville. Line of Recycled and Environingingment of Aimplas19/10/2012

The big development experienced in the last decades by the sector of the construction has taken place mainly in the cities and generally, has llevar without environingingmental criteria, what has supposed the design and construction of urban fabrics and buildings little efficient.

Some indicators put in evidence the environingingmental impact that this involves, for example, almost 50% of the broadcasts of CO₂ that arrive to the atmosphere has direct relation with the construction and use of buildings¹. This means that the sector of the construction has a fundamental paper that play in the reduction of global environingingmental impact, and in the planned aims for the European Union to the horizon 2020, mainly those related with the reduction of gases of effect invernadero and the increase of the energetic efficiency².

Gemma Botica Seville. Line of Recycled and Environingingment of Aimplas.

Is foreseen that the cities follow increasing, in spite of the current economic crisis. This situation forces to replantear mechanisms and solutions to achieve that this urban growth develop of a sustainable way. It arises a new concept, sustainable urban development, that marks a turning point and invites to apply the knowledges and the available technologies that allows to llevar it.

Like answer to this new concept and to the increasing consciousness and citizen worry on the environingingmental appearances, are creating systems of voluntary certification of green ‘buildings', as they are for example, German Sustainable Building Council (DGNB), Green Building Council (READ), and Building Research Establishment Environingingmental Assessment Methodology (BREEAM). These programs of certification realise a valorisation of the buildings, in function of distinct criteria to the long desu cycle of life usually, as they can be the gestión of the power, the gestión of the water, the gestión of the waste or the environingingmental impact of the materials used.

With the aim to be able to evaluate some of these criteria, resorts to the known ecoetiquetas or ecological labels, that allow to identify those products or services that bear a better environingingmental behaviour. These ecoetiquetas and the norms of reference that regulate them, according to the International Organisation of the Standardisation (ISO), are:

- JOINS IN ISO 14024:2001. Ecological labels and environingingmental statements. Ecological labeling Type I. Principles and procedures.

- JOINS IN ISO 14021:2002. Ecological labels and environingingmental statements. Autodeclaraciones Environingingmental (ecological Labeling Type II).

- JOINS IN ISO 14025:2010. Labels and environingingmental statements. Environingingmental statements type III. Principles and procedures.

Between this typology of ecoetiquetas, fits to stand out the ones of Type III or Environingingmental Statements of Products (DAP), as those that more incidence have had in the sector of the construction.

An ecoetiqueta Type III or Environingingmental Statement of Product (DAP), is what knows like an ecological profile of a product. It provides environingingmental data quantified based usually in an Analysis of Cycle of Life (ACV), using parameters predetermined, Rules of Categories of Product (RCP) and when it correspond, additional information (quantitative or qualitative). Of this way is possible the comparison between products that fulfil with the same function.

Recently has published the norm JOINS-IN 15804:2012 Sustainability in the construction. Environingingmental statements of product. Rules of category of basic products for products of construction, that pretends to promote the production and commercialisation of products and services of the construction under the concept of ecology and sustainability, establishing the Rules of Category of Product (RCP) for any product and service of construction. According to this norm, the RCP basic that apply to the DAP of services or products of construction:

- They define the parameters to declare and the form in that recopilan and consign in the report

- describe which stages of the cycle of life of a product consider in the DAP and which processes go to include in the stages of the cycle of life

- define the rules for the calculation of the inventory of the cycle of life and the evaluation of the impact of the cycle of life in that it supports the DAP

- include the rules to establish the environingingmental information predetermined, that is not covered by the ACV of a product, process and service of construction, when it was necessary

- define the conditions in which the products of construction can compare on the base of the proportionate information by the DAP

The plastic materials are material very used in the sector of the construction, in a wide variety of applications, like isolation, design of interiors, pipes or freamers of windows, between others. His technical characteristics and of transformation confer to the plastics this notoriety, since they stand out in properties like the resistance, ligereza, crowd of finishings and ease of handle among others appearances.

In addition to these technical characteristics, different studies show the contribution of the plastic materials to the sector of the construction in environingingmental matter. For example, on the plastic materials in applications of thermal sensors isolation can extract the following conclusions³:

- The energetic saving that generate along his phase of use is 150 greater times that the power that has needed to manufacture them.

- Along all the life of a building, these applications present a saving of power of, like minimum, 9.500 MGJ. This energetic saving translates in an approximate reduction of 536 million tonnes of broadcasts of CO₂.

Aimplas, conscious of the opportunity that this supposes to apply the plastic materials to the sector of the construction, puts to disposal of the technical companies specialised in the advice and development of Environingingmental Statements of Product.

¹ http://www.conama.es/viconama/ds/pdf/43.pdf date of query: 14/09/2012

²http://ec.europa.eu/europe2020/europe-2020-in-a-nutshell/targets/index_es.htm. Date of query: 14/09/2012

³ Institute Denkstatt. The impact of the plastics during his cycle of life on the consumption of power and the broadcasts of gases of effect invernadero. June 2010.