GET A LIFT OUT OF THE DUMPS!

I get ‘rocked back on my heels’ every time I pass a empty lot where an old vacant building had stood there in what seemed like just yesterday. The same thing happens to me when I see the dreaded, tracked monster with the big clamshell bucket tearing into the side of a structure and demolishing it. How did that structure get allowed to slide to the point that it was considered so worthless that it had to be torn down and crushed? Worse, how did that structure reach a point that nothing in it was worth saving or reusing? I mean, when that tractor gets through, every bit of material that made up that structure is crushed and useless. What is even more troubling, every bit of the debris is scooped up and hauled off to be dumped in a landfill. What a waste in every respect!

What would be so wrong with ‘deconstructing’ the building if it just can’t be used anymore? Many of the materials in old structures would cost a small fortune today, if you could even find them. The framing lumber of old structures is, for the most part, a quality and grade we just can’t get today. Plumbing, plumbing fixtures, electrical wiring and masonry materials are many times made up of base materials that are expensive to obtain today. Why aren’t we at least salvaging these materials to be used as raw materials for new items? The best plan though, is to remove, intact, things like doors, windows, hardwood floors, cabinetry, trim, wood sidings, wood framing members, etc. so that these items can be reused in their present form.

All of these items have value and that value increases because it doesn’t get destroyed and dumped into a landfill. These materials can be sold to people with restoration or renovation projects of older structures. Even mediocre salvaged materials can be sold to those on a budget or those building ‘rough’ structures. We live and think like there will never be an end to the stacks of goods we have to pick from at the lumber yard and/or home and garden store. But that just isn’t the case. We think that the labor cost to deconstruct, handle and reuse the materials far exceeds their value and the cost to just crush them and dump them, but that just isn’t the case. We need to re-evaluate our thinking of use and waste. What are your thoughts on the subject?