California reuse retail centre opens
Demolition rubble
A ‘green’ retail centre for construction and demolition materials has opened in Los Angeles, funded in part with monies from the US Environmental Protection Agency awarded in 2006. A US$50,000 (Euro 35,000) grant was made by the Agency to non-profit organisation The Reuse People of America, which operates building materials reuse and exchange facilities in northern and southern California.
It is expected that the new facility will divert and reuse 1,500 tonnes of material in its first two full years of operation.
The Reuse People organisation runs a full-time deconstruction tem that salvages construction material by systematically dissassembling building and homes using hand tools, taking them apart brick by brick, including domestic applicances. The resulting material is then distributed through the organisation’s warehouses. It says that it routinely recycles 80% of the materials (brick, timber etc.) that results from its activities.
Currently in the USA, in excess of 160 million tonnes of C&D waste is generated annually, with a considerable percentage being disposed of in landfill rather than being reused, although it should be pointed out that demolition contractors in the country are increasingly recycling high percentages of waste during their operations.
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