If you’re looking at building materials and you’re a vegan, you might find yourself struggling with quite a few ethical dilemmas – including the use of cement. Is cement vegan-friendly, or should you be avoiding it?
It’s challenging to find out exactly what goes into cement, but it’s likely that most cement is not suitable for vegans, unfortunately. This is because cement often contains animal products, usually as waste from the meat industry. Animal tallow can be used to extend the life of certain building materials, which may include cement.
This article is going to explore whether cement is suitable for vegans to use, or whether it’s something you should be avoiding. It’s important to understand this if you are going to use cement around your home.
Does Cement Count As Vegan?
Unfortunately, cement does not count as vegan in most cases. However, the information about what any particular kind of cement might contain is very limited, and you probably won’t be able to tell specifically whether the cement you are buying is suitable for vegans or not.
This is a big problem because cement is such a key building material in so many projects. It’s used all over the world, in DIY and in commercial construction, so it’s frustrating that there is so little information about its makeup.
However, there’s no doubt that you should treat cement with serious suspicion because in the past, animal fat, blood, and milk have all been used in the creation of cement – and nothing has banned these practices, so there’s a high chance that they are still ongoing.
It’s also likely that waste from the meat industry is sometimes used up in cement, with both meat and bonemeal being possible additives. A further issue with cement is that one of its core ingredients is limestone, and limestone tends to be harvested from caves, destroying the natural habitat of bats.
You might therefore avoid cement because:
- It has a major environmental cost in many cases
- It may contain animal products to increase its longevity
- Byproducts from the meat industry often bulk it out
Are There Vegan Cement Brands?
At present, there don’t appear to be any brands of cement that advertise themselves as vegan. This is frustrating if you’re looking for building materials that are in line with your ethics.
It doesn’t mean that there are no vegan cement brands out there, but at the moment, there’s no way of determining which ones might fit this criterion.
Hopefully, as awareness of veganism grows and more people move in this direction, brands will emerge.
In the meantime, vegans are left with very limited options when they want to use cement.
What Alternatives Are There To Cement?
If you’re looking for an ethical alternative to cement, you’ll probably have to look quite hard and do some research into the alternatives to see if they will suit your needs.
The green substitutes currently include:
- Ashcrete: this uses about 97 percent recycled materials, and utilizes byproducts from coal combustion, which otherwise end up in landfill sites
- Hempcrete: hemp fibers are mixed with lime and water, creating a lighter and stronger material that is significantly more environmentally-friendly
- Mycelium: the root-like fibers that mushrooms form below the ground can be grown around other organic materials to create a strong structure that can then be used in construction
- Ferrock: this is a steel-dust kind of concrete, and it utilizes recycled waste from the glass and steel industries, preventing the waste from going into landfill sites
- Recycled plastic: a lot of vegans don’t like recycled plastic because plastic isn’t vegan, but it can be used to bulk out concrete, which creates more demand for recycling and is somewhat eco-friendly
None of these substitutes are perfect and there’s no guarantee that they will not utilize any animal products (for example, plastic tends to), but it’s worth considering them if you are able to source them. They are preferable options to traditional concrete, although many are not readily available to the public yet.
Should You Use Cement If You Are A Vegan?
Unfortunately, there’s no simple answer to this. Cement is a pretty key substance for building and even if you don’t use it directly, it’s likely that your home will contain cement in areas – because most do.
Every vegan will have to make their own choice about what they feel the most ethical approach is. If you need cement for a project, you should try to accept that there probably isn’t a perfect solution yet, and avoid feeling bad about it.
Conclusion
Cement is not a vegan product, although there’s a distinct lack of information about what it generally contains. Many types of cement contain animal products or meat industry byproducts, but if you can get one of the alternatives mentioned above, this may be a viable solution.
