I'm trying to examine this question, because I'd really like to use acrylic medium as a binder for the art cubes. I experimented with a few alernatives, such as using wheat paste or paper pulp. I made a little paper pulp pancake, and it turned out OK, but it is not very durable, and I think for the kind of effect I want, which is the different art mediums showing on the outside of the cube, it would not work. Plus it would be hard for it to dry in the center. Wheat paste ... I wanted to try it but I just don't see it working right, everything would become covered in white slimy wheat paste, and it would probably mold or break down or get eaten by insects. Also, Jason Liang's blog warned that it did not work for his straw bale compression. And it's not like wheat is totally "free" environmentally, considering all the energy put into it's production, I wouldn't automatically assume that is significantly less impact than acrylic.
Most sources on the internet, as well as Karen Michel's book describe acrylic as green or sustainable or at least non-toxic. I don't know how to evaluate it's total environmental impact with respect to wheat paste or some other binder like rabbit skin glue, gum arabic, or whatever. But, I think I can find acrylic discarded or at Scraps or East Bay Center for Creative Reuse and it does seem to be non toxic. So for my purposes it could be a very low impact material. Below is the MSDS for acrylic. I was suprised to learn just how safe it is (though this may not be true for some pigments used in paint) Just don't paint you eyeballs with boiling acrylc, and you should be ok.
Acrylic MSDS 882259
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