flooring like ceramic tile and hardwood flooring, there are medium price alternatives like natural linoleum, cork and new resilient flooring materials like Straticawhich uses high-tech engineering polymer resins to provide a durable surface and sophisticated patterns similar to high-end vinyl, without the chlorine (Environmental Building News, 1998). A range of roofing materials are available, including non-chlorinated polymers like EPDM and TPO (thermoplastic olefin) single-ply roofing systems that actually outperform PVC. An increasing variety of materials are available, including recycled steel tiles and recycled rubber/polymer composites like Authentic Roof that look like slate but at 25 percent the weight of slate. Another example is Progress Roofing manufactured by Inteq Corporation in simulated slate, wood shake, and terra cotta tile profiles from 100 percent recycled HDPE. All three styles have uniform color throughout and come with a 50-year warranty. Going PVC-free may be a little more difficult in the area of siding. Vinyl has now almost completely eliminated aluminum siding from the mainstream residential building market. Outside piping, siding is the biggest volume use of PVC in construction, representing about 15 percent of all new vinyl. The great appeal of vinyl is that it is maintenance free. New forms of engineered wood paneling hold some promise, but more likely it is fibre-cement products, like those produced by James Hardie Companyincluding Hardiplank lap siding and Hardie Shinglesidethat will offer the stiffest competition to vinyl in the maintenance-free siding market (Environmental Building News, 2005; Greenpeace, 2003). The main environmental problem with fibrecement is its silica dust which can be a source of silicosis for manufacturing and