The Filter Industry Is Far From Sustainable
Most HVAC filters on the market contain cardboard, a metal wire frame, and filter media, which is almost always derived from petroleum. These petroleum-based filters often end up in landfills after their short use of an average of 30-90 days, outliving the very people that bought and implemented them in their home. At best, a landfill worker may stumble across an HVAC filter while sifting through the refuse and recycle the metal wiring that is used in most models. Unfortunately, the rest of the synthetic plastic filter media remains in the landfill, and can take a thousand years to degrade. These synthetic filters take up valuable space and cause leaching, which in turn generates Methane gas (a greenhouse gas 25x more potent than Carbon Dioxide).
Using a conservative estimate of 100 million households in the US, and assuming that each household throws away just one 20”x20”x1” HVAC filter per year, the US sends the equivalent of 263 Olympic- sized swimming pools filled with HVAC filters per year to the landfill. This doesn’t even include commercial buildings...
HTBH is here to solve this problem. Our long-lasting HempGuard leverages the strength and durability of hemp's ultra-strong fibers and lasts six months. Then at the end of its useful life, the HempGuard can be safely trashed to biodegrade in the landfill, or better yet, recycled or composted!
The Health Implications of Indoor Air Pollution
According to the EPA, scientific evidence indicates that the air within homes and buildings can be severely more polluted than outdoor air in large and industrialized cities, and can have a significant impact on human health. Did you know that the World Health Organization (WHO) attributes 3.8 million deaths annually to household air pollution?
Air pollution can have immediate negative health effects resulting in headaches, dizziness, fatigue, and irritation of the eyes, nose, and throat. Long-term exposure to indoor air pollutants can lead to respiratory diseases, heart disease, and even cancer. And most of us spend about 90% of our time indoors! This makes our modern HVAC (Heating, Ventilation, & Air Conditioning) systems crucial in maintaining a healthy lifestyle. Particulate matter, formaldehyde, mold and pollen are just some of the indoor air pollutants that we face every day. The pollutants have many sources - they could come from outside, or they could come from building materials, consumer products, home furnishings, or even activities such as cooking, smoking, or cleaning.
Beyond reducing the sources of air pollution or diluting the pollutants by increasing the ventilation in your home, the next best thing that you can do to increase the quality of the indoor air that you breath is installing an air filter. Installing and maintaining a high quality air filter in your HVAC system is a simple and easy way to improve the air quality within your home or office building. The HempGuard is the perfect, cost-effective, sustainable, allergen-filtration air solution to help keep you and your home healthy and clean!
