February, 2008

Demo and Salvage–at a Profit

An exemplary green building recycling program is already 11 years old.  

By John Wagner

It’s easy to go green today. Or I should say, it’s easier.

These days, people don’t think you’re a flake when you start talking about embodied energy and lifecycle analysis, or when you stop someone from tossing a hazardous waste, mercury thermostat in the dumpster. That’s why one of the Minneapolis-based Green Institute’s (Greeninstitute.org) programs is so worthy of praise. Called The Reuse Program, its efforts to recycle buildings began 11 years ago—when gas was $1.24 a gallon and “Global Warming” was more likely a rum drink than a serious public policy dilemma.

The Reuse Program is based on a deceptively simple model: For a fixed fee set during a brief bidding process, teams of building recycling experts come into a home or commercial building and demo the place, salvaging anything of value—from copper pipes to kitchen cabinets. (Hazardous materials such as asbestos have to be removed by licensed experts before the crews can work.)

The Reuse Program, which employs 22 people, then sells the materials they salvage through various channels. Since it is a charitable “501c3” organization, the donations—meaning the value of the items removed for salvage and resale—can be written off by building owners on their taxes.

The Program has three stores in the Minneapolis area, as well as a 5,000-name email list. When a new property is about to be salvaged, an alert is emailed, noting the date for an “Onsite Sale,” a bit like an estate sale. Anyone can purchase salvaged materials as they are pulled from the building. What’s not sold that day is placed in one of the stores.

“Though we have done some whole-house demos, we mostly are called in for single-room demos. Kitchens are where everyone benefits the most,” explains Jamie Heipel, the executive director of The Green Institute, the Reuse Center’s parent organization. “For around $500—which includes the dumpster ‘tipping’ fee—our crews will come in and take an old kitchen down to the studs.”

The real value to The Reuse Center is what they take out of a site. “We recently did a demo of a professional athlete’s home near Minneapolis. He was remodeling, and he had a kitchen that was just three years old. We sold that material for $9,000, because there was lots of cherry and granite. The contractor who bought it was probably able to sell it for three times that.

“Sometimes, before we even get into the place, a contractor will buy an entire kitchen—cabinets, countertops, fixtures, and floors—and entirely reinstall it in a house he’s working on,” said Heipel. “We’ve taken out odd and rare things too, like 1920s phone booths that were built into homes, and perfectly good hardwood floors that were 50 or 60 years old. You just can’t find comparable new products that have that vintage look and feel. We also salvage a large number of grain elevators, and we’re able to pull very valuable old timbers out of there, typically Douglas Fir and Norway pine, which can be FSC certified.”

Contractors or homeowners can schedule salvage operations online or by phone. The most common sale items are doors and windows, and the demo crews take pictures of what the materials looked like in the original setting, which are displayed with the item in the store.

As simple as it is, The Reuse Center is so successful that it is one of the only financially self-sustaining Green Institute programs. (Many others rely on grants and funds obtained through service contracts.) Just goes to show you, it’s not that hard to go green while making green.

Contact: The Reuse Center612.278.7160 • www.Thereusecenter.comJamie Heipel: jheipel@greeninstitute.org 

The award-winning author of ten books about home building, and a frequent contributor to the industry’s leading trade magazines, John D. Wagner is the Green Editor for LBM Journal and the content manager for the Certified Green Dealer Program.