Due
to rising landfill costs, tighter recycling guidelines and the growing trend
toward ecologically sound building methods, a new trend of home recycling or
home “deconstruction,” is starting to catch on. About 1,000 homes a year are
disassembled this way (beam by beam, salvaging what can be saved and donating
what can’t be to recycling centers,) according to the Building Materials Reuse
Association, a nonprofit educational group in State College, Pa.,
which reports growing interest in the practice.
Fueling that interest are
efforts by cities and states across the country to stanch the flow of
demolition rubble into landfills. Some 245,000 houses in the United States
are razed each year, generating nearly 20 million tons of debris, according to
a 1996 report from the Environmental Protection Agency, the most
recent data available.
Today, according to the
Building Materials Reuse Association, up to 85 percent of the average house can
be recycled or reused; the hard part is harvesting the materials in a way that
preserves their integrity. The Building Materials Reuse Association, which
introduced a deconstruction training program in May, has certified 60 builders
so far.
Many cities now have “reuse”
stores, which sell salvaged goods — from wall sockets to vintage redwood
floorboards — for 50 to 75 percent off what similar products would cost if
purchased new.
As with buying secondhand
clothes, the challenge—and potential charm— of reuse shopping is its
unpredictability. Build it Green! NYC, a reuse shop in Astoria, sells sets from nearby film studios
alongside items rescued from residential demolitions. Recently, $25 diner
stools from “The Knights of Prosperity,” a short-lived ABC show, were for sale
alongside $40 doors from “The Sopranos” and a set of cherry-finish kitchen
cabinets removed from an Upper East Side
apartment. The original owners paid $18,000 to buy and install the cabinets,
according to Justin Green, a founder of the store, who was asking $1,200 for
the set—top and bottom cabinets as well as counters.