Progressive Wednesday

Cement-imentality

April 21st, 2007 by Matt

Strolling around NYC one winter with my Brooklyn born-and-bred bud, Jay, I looked up at the skyscrapers surrounding us like they were monuments to the gods. From my vantage point, that of someone who grew up in a town where a three-story building was considered excessive, these buildings boggled my imagination.

“Man, those are beautiful,” I said. “I can’t believe we made these.”

To that, Jay, making every effort to dismantle my sentimentality for his city, said: “I wish cement had never been invented.”

Maybe we both had a point. And maybe Jay, an avid reader of Progressive Wednesday, will smile a bit over what Time magazine has just plopped into my mind, which I will now plop into his and yours: cement can help save the planet.

Read for yourself:

As head of research and development for Italcementi, Enrico Borgarello knows cement isn’t considered the most high-tech–or environmentally friendly–of products. But under his direction, the Bergamo-based Italian company has developed a substance that could turn an ordinary building into a weapon against air pollution.

It’s called TX Active, and it’s an additive for cement that literally eats surrounding smog.

According to Mr. Borgarello, when the sun hits TX Active, the substance “neutralizes surrounding pollutants like nitrous oxide and sulfur dioxide.” TX has the potential to cut local air pollutants from 20-70%.

The Italcementi company paints an even clearer picture:

In a large city such as Milan, researchers have calculated – on the basis of test results – that covering 15% of visible urban surfaces with products containing TX Active® would enable a reduction in pollution of approximately 50%.

Testing continues because similar catalytic agents like TX can lose steam over the long haul. But considering the building boom going on in some underdeveloped but industrializing countries, TX could make minuscule and monstrous buildings alike more eco-friendly and life more sustainable.
If so, Jay and I might see the world a little more similarly, and call me selfish for ignoring the environment for a split-moment, but I’d kinda dig that, too.