"Plastic on every corner!" is bascically the rallying cry from the Oregon Department of Transportation, even despite the fact that, Portland, their biggest city is also widely considered to be the greenest city in America. area when they crossed one of these mats. Understandably, if these products go out of compliance, they are absolutely useless to our disabled citizens and are required to be replaced. Because detectable warnings are placed outside, it makes sense that they better be able to withstand the elements for as long as possible. Composites like fiberglass, plastic, and other various resins and polymers ,even with the inclusion of special additives, are inherently susceptible to UV rays, keeping these products UV protected for more than 18 months is impossible. Industry specialists in the building trade typically understand the weaknesses and problems that go along with using plastics outdoors, yet Oregon's Department of Transportation irresponsibly has specified to only use plastic products for this purpose on all of their projects. Their reason: color. That's right, the Oregon DOT wants a shade of yellow so bright that it can't possibly be made with anything other than plastic. Never mind the fact that the Federal Guidelines related to acceptible colors in detectable warnings are easily met with concrete products, the Oregon DOT want a product in their sidewalks so bright that it has to be made of plastic. Unfortunately, the tax payers of Oregon will end up paying greatly for ODOT's misguided policy on detectable warnings as they bare the cost of replacing every single one of the tiles that has already been installed. That is unless the project is part of the Stimulus Plan, then every American pays for this ignorance. When you consider the 37,744 street corners in simply the city of Portland and the fact that 2 $100 mats are needed on each corner, I'm glad for the people of Portland that at least the Oregon Department of Transportation isn't in charge of choosing what their city decides to use in their sidewalks! Strangely enough, the states of Nevada, New Mexico and even Kentucky(?!) are more environmentally conscious and progressive than Oregon when it comes to choosing which types of products they will install in their streets. After years of putting in plastic products and seeing them fall apart all of these states now only allow concrete products. According to one of Nevada Department of Transportation's materials guys, concrete is unique in that it is extremely resilient to weather, temperatures, and conditions of all kinds. Using a plastic product in this case is irresponsible both as stewards of people of their state and the environment. In the interest of fiscal and environmental responsibility please share this article with those people you think might be interested in putting an end to Government waste and helping to make our society more sustainable.
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As strange as it may seem, America's most environmentally friendly state still prefers rotting plastic over sustainability in their streets.
For information and to sign the petition, please visit www.nonplasticearth.org
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