a bit controversial, coming from a LOSer .... hehehe .... i'm going with Living Organic Soiler for the acronym .... lol.
but in australia and for most growers using no-till growing techniques, i can see more advantages for perlite than disadvantages. it's true that it takes a substantial amount of heat to make perlite ... but many of the other inputs that we use, also require high energy inputs, such as biochar. from an environmental perspective ... most of the perlite sourced in oz, comes from nth qld and they seem to have their process pretty down-pat ... for all i know, they could be using energy from the hydro plant up there. compared to the energy needed to grow, harvest and transport peat and coir ... it doesn't seem too bad.
as to breaking down ... my feeling after using a shit load of different pots over the years, is that the pot will breakdown before the perlite in the soil mix. this pot issue and the amount that i move houses, has placed me more in the the ROLS (recycled organic living soil) camp, rather than the no-till camp. As to floating ... i haven't found this a problem with my soil mixes and perlite dust is easily sorted by wetting the perlite before mixing.
the huge pro for me is weight. i've gone down the pumice route and also the sharp sand route and perlite makes more sense for my two-plant elevated setup - i raise my pots about 70cm, as i used to kink my neck watering them, when they were on the ground.
i think the only thing i might experiment with in the future for my aeration needs, would be buckwheat husks. i've used them for my pillows for ages and i know that they last donkeys.
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