Gypsum Wall Board (Drywall)

Gypsum wall board, also known as drywall, or plasterboard is a plaster-based wall finish that is available in a variety of standard sizes; 4 ft wide by 8 ft high is the most common. Thicknesses vary in 1/8-inch increments from 1/4 to 3/4 inch. Gypsum wall board, which is also known by its proprietary names Drywall and Sheetrock, is ubiquitous in construction. Gypsum wall board is a benign substance (basically paper-covered calcium sulfate), but it has significant environmental impacts because it is used on a vast scale; domestic construction uses an estimated 30 billion square feet per year. Advantages of gypsum board include its low cost, ease of installation and finishing, fire resistance, nontoxicity, sound attenuation, and availability. Disadvantages include: difficulty in curved-surface application and low durability when subject to damage from impact or abrasion. JK Gypsum Decoration has been serving all over Bangladesh for seven years as a Best Gypsum Design Company in Bangladesh. We are highly skilled and experienced in interior design.

Gypsum board manufacturers are increasingly relying on “synthetic” gypsum as an effective alternative to natural gypsum. It is estimated that roughly 45% of the gypsum used by U.S. manufacturers in 2010 was of the synthetic variety. Synthetic gypsum and natural gypsum have similar general chemical compositions (CaSO4·2H20). The vast majority of the synthetic gypsum used by the industry is a by-product of the process used to remove pollutants from the exhaust created by the burning of fossil fuels for power generation. If synthetic gypsum was not used to manufacture gypsum panel products, it would end up in landfills.

Though synthetic gypsum-board use is growing in popularity, and reclaimed gypsum board can easily be recycled into new gypsum panels that conform to the same quality standards as natural and synthetic gypsum, doing this may not be practical because gypsum is an inexpensive material which can require significant labor to separate and prepare for recycling. Gypsum-board face paper is nearly 100% recycled from newsprint, cardboard, and other post consumer waste streams, but most recycled gypsum in wall-board products is postindustrial, made from gypsum-board manufacture.

Ecology Action, a nonprofit environmental consultancy states that the main environmental impacts of gypsum include habitat disruption from mining, energy use and associated emissions in processing and shipment, in addition to solid waste from disposal. Some of these impacts can be significantly reduced by the use of “synthetic” or recycled gypsum board. Synthetic gypsum, which is now used in about 30% of drywall, is a by-product of coal-fired power plants. It is sometimes confused with fly ash, another coal combustion product with which it has very little in common. In excess of 80% of coal fly ash sold in the United States is used in gypsum board.

New technologies have helped in the development of several new Gypsum board products that have come on the market and that are more environmentally friendly and superior in many ways to the traditional gypsum board. One such example is the new eco friendly EcoRock Drywall which has significantly changed and improved the drywall product from its basic material elements to its production processing methods. EcoRock is a fully recyclable and highly attractive alternative. It is manufactured from 80% post industrial recycling and exploits material from steel and cement plant waste and can be safely discarded in landfills. EcoRock is naturally cured and dried, which means that 80% less energy is required than the traditional methods use in the manufacturing process. Moreover, it contains no gypsum, thus eliminating the need for high-intense energy consumption during production and improves air quality by eliminating airborne mercury. EcoRock drywall, which creates 60% less dust, is resistant to termites and is 50% more resistant to mildew and mold.

Source: Science Direct