reuse

  • Green Product Picks: Reclaimed Materials

    Salvaged building products offer a sustainable, one-of-a-kind touch to eco-friendly homes.

  • Efficient Design and Building Practices Can Effectively Reduce Your Waste Stream and Boost Your Bottom Line

    Through the point of installing insulation in his 3,600-square-foot custom home near Columbia, S.C., architect Mark Bostic has yet to make or pay for a trip to the local landfill. In Ft. Wayne, Ind., Jeff Zolnik serves about three-quarters of the area's builders with his construction waste recycling business, adding an average of one new customer a day. Meanwhile, Santa Fe, N.M., builder Kim Shanahan sends the foam packaging material he collects on his jobsites to a nearby maker of insulated concrete forms, which Shanahan uses for the stem walls on his latest project.

  • Builders Are Urged To Consider the Green Benefits of Deconstruction Vs. Demolition

    Demolishing an existing house for a renovation or infill project may be quick and easy, but a lot of those building materials unnecessarily end up in land fills. According to the EPA's 2003 estimates, 164 million tons of waste was generated from building activities, including construction, renovation, and demolition. Demolition alone accounts for 54 percent of the total waste stream, says Brad Guy, president of the Building Materials Reuse Association. Guy estimates that deconstruction and re-use currently recapture only about .2 percent of the total waste stream.

  • Reclaimed Lumber

    Even with surging interest in green building and sustainability, new construction and renovation projects continue to deplete vast quantities of resources. Remodeling, in particular, is a double-edged sword--the new house consumes materials, the demolition of the old structure generates debris. You can build efficiently with sustainable products, and many pros do, but reusing building materials salvaged from old structures is yet another way to help Mother Earth. The concept is simple: The tons of usable materials that already exist in commercial and residential applications can be carefully deconstructed, cleaned up, and reused in new buildings.

  • Recycling opportunities for construction materials

    The worthy goal of diverting construction materials from the landfill is fraught with obstacles, but recycling opportunities are growing.