GORE™ TENARA® Architectural Fabric Environmental Impact
Material
GORE™ TENARA® Architectural Fabric is 100% fluoropolymer with a backbone of high tenacity PTFE yarn. It has the following properties:
- free of chlorine
- no contribution to ozone depletion unlike chlorofluorocabrons (CFC’s)
- no contribution to the formation of chloro/bromo-dioxins or – furans (“dioxins”)
- free of plastisizers
- free of stabilizers
- free of catalysts
GORE™ TENARA® Architectural Fabric is therefore harmless to the skin and completely odor-free.
Lifetime
The type of function and benefit a product provides – and for how long – is crucial for the ecological balance of that product. For example, if a product provides a function for twice the time of an alternative product, the negative impact on the environment is significantly reduced. For the equivalent benefit to the user, production of the alternative consumes twice the amount of raw materials, energy resources, water and auxiliaries and generates twice the amount of emissions.
Due to their extremely strong carbon/fluorine bonds, fluoropolymers have unique properties: excellent chemical resistance, high resistance against extreme temperatures and UV radiation.
These properties make products produced from fluoropolymers extremely durable with long service lives, which, as explained above, has a direct positive influence on our environment.
Recycling and Disposal
The ability to recycle and reuse a material is beneficial to our environment and is normally preferred as compared to disposal by landfilling or incineration. Since GORE™ TENARA® fabric is 100% fluoropolymer and does not degrade during its useful life, it can be reprocessed and used in other applications. Gore will accept returned uncontaminated GORE™ TENARA® fabric resulting from fabrication scrap or from that used in architectural application.
PTFE is not classified as hazardous waste in Europe or the USA.
In a landfill, GORE™ TENARA® architectural fabric is completely inert and will not degrade biologically. Consequently, it cannot contribute to hazardous lechates or gases.
In an incineration plant the materials contained within GORE™ TENARA® Architectural Fabric are primarily converted to CO2 water and HF. The scrubbers in a state of the art municipal incineration plant that is capable of handling halogenated materials can capture the HF. The resulting HF emissions are far below levels that could harm people or the environment.
GORE™ TENARA® Architectural Fabric Environmental Impact
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