Recycled building materials trim waste and are cheaper, too
| Minneapolis and New York
One of the world鈥檚 finest repositories of junk sits just off Route 55 in Minneapolis, about two miles south of the city鈥檚 new baseball stadium, Target Field. Here, in a cavernous warehouse, used toilets jostle for space with worn aluminum siding, and doors and cabinets reach in teetering stacks toward the ceiling.
On a rainy morning recently, Jamie Heipel weaves expertly between sheets of particleboard, pointing out, as he walks, the prices on each item. 鈥淭his one is $50,鈥� he says, resting his hand on a mint-condition dresser. 鈥淢uch less than half of what you鈥檇 pay at Home Depot. In most cases, the stuff goes for about 50 cents on the dollar. Sometimes 40. Sometimes less. And we can鈥檛 keep it in stock.鈥�
Mr. Heipel, a stocky former corporate businessman, is the executive director of a local environmental nonprofit called the Green Institute, and the de-facto head of its Re-Use Center initiative. Since 1995, the Center has been salvaging discarded building supplies and selling them at a deep discount from this warehouse. (In March, the Green Institute launched a second storefront in nearby Maplewood.)
Now Heipel is watching foot traffic soar 鈥� a direct result, he speculates, of the dismal global economy and a heightened eco-awareness on the part of consumers. 鈥淚t鈥檚 helped our business tremendously,鈥� Heipel says. 鈥淧eople are less likely to invest in a new house. They want to stay put, and they want their home to look good. And the people who are donating, they want to feel like they鈥檙e contributing to the community.鈥�
It鈥檚 a familiar scenario for salvage and supply outfits across the country. In interviews this week with the Monitor, directors of organizations from Berkeley, Calif., to Astoria, Queens, reported a surge in sales volume and revenue. 鈥淲e鈥檝e been around for about nine years now, and the number of purchases in [October] were the highest we鈥檝e ever had in a single month,鈥� says Mike Gable, the executive director of
Construction Junction, a nonprofit 鈥渂uilding material reuse retailer鈥� based in Pittsburgh.
鈥淥ur revenue is 20 percent ahead of where it was last year,鈥� Mr. Gable adds. 鈥淎nd we鈥檝e had an incredible increase in people coming into our store.鈥�
According to in-house figures provided by Gable, Construction Junction revenues are up nearly one-third from last year. November is shaping up to be another banner month, he says.
鈥淲e get a lot more calls these days, from the media and from contractors,鈥� says Brad Guy, president of Building Materials Reuse Association, a national nonprofit that helps educate groups on deconstruction and recycling. 鈥淓very major publication has had a green edition recently. We鈥檝e got the buzz about the whole green-jobs thing. It鈥檚 a buzzword, but it does translate 鈥� people are more interested in avoiding waste. We鈥檙e riding that wave.鈥�
Most construction-supply re颅颅cycling organizations work on a relatively simple model, pioneered in part by the Re-Use Center. Supplies ranging from one-foot squares of glass to entire kitchen interiors are donated by private contractors or local residents. (Tax-deductibility varies by state.) Some programs, such as the Queens-based Build It Green! NYC, also employ a team of deconstruction experts who can strip and haul away reusable material from homes under renovation and demolition sites. The material is then displayed in a warehouse or storefront setting for contractors, consumers, or landlords to haul away.
鈥淭hink about it from a resource conservation perspective: You don鈥檛 need to be manufacturing that glass or mining that ore to make the doorknob,鈥� explains Stephen Hammer, director of the Urban Energy Project at Columbia University鈥檚 Center for Energy, Marine Transportation, and Public Policy. 鈥淟ess energy is used over the lifetime of that object.鈥� It鈥檚 called 鈥渆mbodied energy,鈥� Dr. Hammer adds, referring to the amount of energy expended on the creation of a product. 鈥淎nd it鈥檚 absolutely critical to the business sector.鈥�
In 10 years, Heipel, of the Re-Use Center, estimates his program has kept close to 41,000 tons of waste out of local landfills. Justin Green, the program director of Build It Green!, says that reuse organizations also help cut down on the byproducts of traditional landfill use.
鈥淟et鈥檚 say you have some debris that鈥檚 getting hauled out of a demolition site in New York,鈥� Mr. Green says. 鈥淭hat material is going to get ground up in New Jersey, and then shipped out to Pennsylvania or Ohio, where the dumping fees are cheaper. Think about the amount of energy that鈥檚 expended there.鈥�
Oscar Michel, the office manager at Urban Ore in Berkeley, Calif., says Americans have become 鈥減retty hip鈥� to the idea of large-scale construction recycling. 鈥淭hey鈥檒l come in and say, 鈥業 don鈥檛 care about these windows either way, so I think I鈥檒l give them to you first,鈥� 鈥� says Mr. Michel. 鈥淎nd there鈥檚 some great stuff here. The bad economy has sort of helped us 鈥� in some cases, our numbers are better than they ever were before.鈥�
But Urban Ore, unlike the Re-Use Center and Build It Green!, is a for-profit enterprise. They pay low-income Berkeley residents for scrap metal and plumbing and other building innards. 鈥淎 lot of people survive on us,鈥� Michel says, and since scrap metal prices are holding, it鈥檚 unlikely that the supply stream will dry up anytime soon.
For Gable of Construction Junction, it remains a pressing concern. 鈥淲e鈥檝e been kind of watching to see if people are going to not only stop buying homes but stop renovating,鈥� he says. 鈥淧ut off replacing their old kitchen with a new kitchen. Could the supply side of our organization slow down? Well, we haven鈥檛 seen it yet.鈥�
鈥� For a list of similar programs near you, go to the on EcoBusinessLinks.
