Construction Materials- Buy New or Use Recycled?
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 06. 5.06
Karen, when she is not gathering waters, is fixing her house and asks: "Should we go to the local ReStore and by leftovers and recycled materials, or should we research the greenest, most eco-friendly, socially responsible products and buy those - thus encouraging that market sector?"
Our instant reaction was that recyled materials are always better-
-waste disposal of building materials is a huge problem and re-using eliminates that;
-the embodied energy required to make them and transport them is already invested;
-even the most eco-friendly materials have some carbon footprint in their manufacture and transport;
-the money you spend goes to a good cause;
-in many cases, they don't make'em like they used to- doors, trim and other building components are heavier and better than the stuff made today. Even bricks can be made from wonderful clays no longer available, fired longer and harder.
-cleaning old building materials is labour rather than equipment and energy intensive- people have to pull the nails and chip the mortar. Instead of paying MegaCorp and Home Depot to make and move huge quantities great distances, you are supporting the local economy and creating entry-level construction industry jobs.
On the other hand, in some cases it is better that they don't make them like they used to.
-trim and doors are probably covered in lead-based paint- you don't want to leave it but you don't want to breathe it while you strip it.
-asbestos, the wonder material, was used in siding, tiles, ceilings and pipe wraps.
-concrete and brick was often made with cinders from coal furnaces (In our city it was used as fill all over town) which is chock full of cadmium, lead and other heavy metals.
This is where it pays to get green and socially responsible- insulation, windows, electrical and plumbing is all better new if you go for the right stuff. The old stuff will use more electricity, water and not be as effective.
Until recent times, there was not even a question on this subject- if a building came down you recovered everything. Nails were too valuable to scrap; In Europe, stones have been re-used for millenia; when in University this TreeHugger worked as an archeological draughtsman for a book on a dig in Jerusalem, where the stones had been re-used to build different buildings six times in 1500 years. As metals are depleted (see John on Peak Copper) and people are stealing lamp posts in Baltimore for the aluminum, recycling will be not only the first choice, it may be the only choice.
Although I could be wrong about this (I usually am) I believe it's always better to get used products wherever possible. When my father retired from farming, he dismantled a series of wooden granaries, wall by wall, and re-assembled them as a cabin beside a lake. Even the handrails are recycled from steel farm implement wheels, and the light fixtures came from our church's garbage pile. Now, not only do we have what neighbors call "the neatest cabin on the lake," we get a property tax reduction for living in a "used" building.
If anyone has information about ReStores - please forward. I am located in the Northeast and I am thinking about starting one.
Thanks
Brewse
Don't forget: Often you can get the best of both worlds by buying modern building supplies at your local construction thrift store. My family is renovating a house right now and we get almost everything from our local Habitat for Humanity building supply thrift store. Much of the stuff is NEW. We just bought eighteen high-efficiency windows, never used, never opened, for less than a third of what they would have cost new. They don't all match each other, of course, but you have to make some trade offs.
Recycling/reusing is great in theory and sometimes in practice... but I really don't see the point of reusing old doors and windows --even though it may look quaint -- as some people are so fond of doing. Sometimes, "old" just means "inefficient" or "poorly designed" (at least for modern utilisation standards. Not to mention, as was already mentioned, risks of lead paint. That stuff is everywhere!
http://www.re-store.org/
That's the website of the two local ones near me. One in Bellingham and one in Seattle, WA, Brewse. If anyone could help you they could.
I shope at those stores for anything I am building. My nightstand was a hanging cabinet for $5, that I put wheels on and painted black and covered with blue monster fur on the top.
Some women like the mall, but I like the ReStore.
http://www.greeninstitute.org/reuse/
This place is great - they also have a deconstruction service.
Sorry, this is unrelated to this post, but I noticed at the end of the page that there is an advertisement for a pornographic site. Since when is it okay to use humans like objects when we are trying to not use the earth? I was taught that we must never use another as a means to our own end, I thought that that was what environmentalism was about, so how can you do just that with humans?
I'm sorry Treehugger, but if you allow this type of misuse to be displayed on your site you've lost a reader. :(.
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editor note: This ad spot is managed by Gawker media (not us) through a partnership we have with them. We've asked them to remove the Fleshbot ad but apparently they haven't yet. We'll either take it down ourselves or get it to be changed faster.
My hubby and I are currently trying to decide if we should tear down our 1910 home, with a lifetime's worth of issues to be corrected (several terrible remodelling jobs, etc), to build a green prefab. Or to do a green remodel the entire house. We have leaky windows, creaking floors, cracking stucco, decaying foundation, etc, etc. In the case of a tear down, we would donate everything we possibly could to a reuse center. We plan on living on our current lot forever. Any thoughts?
Spinach,
I'm not an expert, but the US Green Bulding Council always says, the most effective way to 'green' a building, is rehab an old one. The resources and pollution saved are apparently very big.
But if your house is so far gone that a gut-rehab just won't fix it, then you may truly need new.
Also, will the current house work for the lifestyle you want, and will it be accessible for your senior years?
It's pretty tricky because we have 28" doors. Our living room has a functional space of about 7' X 11'. We live in a desirable neighborhood that could support pretty much any amount of money we put into it. As we aren't loaded, we were planning on aggressively saving up for 5 years to do either the tear-down or remodel. Our house is not particularly senior-friendly. We have one fairly small bathroom on the 2nd floor, which we had remodelled but the contractor took off on us after having done a pretty poor job. I'll have to check out the US Green Building Council website for more info. We just assumed (wrongly so, apparently) that recycling what we could and supporting green building and materials would be a net gain all around.
There are several ways to build green. Using salvaged materials is great, but you have to consider the energy efficiency of the materials. A product we distribute "ThermaSteel" is a fantastic way to build green and save energy too. It's made from recycled steel and polystyrene which is a by-product of the petroleum industry. Before you say "ugh", you have to realize that this stuff would be in our landfills if it weren't used somehow. And the beauty is if you ever make changes in your building, these panels are recylable again! Your home can be designed to look any way you want with any finishing materials such as reclaimed brick or wood siding. You save at least 50% on energy usage. And you save many trees. Check out www.BuildSmartProducts.com