From BioCycle Magazine
May 1999, Page 33

REUSE IN DECONSTRUCTION PROJECTS

Beyond Waste in Santa Rosa, California demonstrates that reuse deconstruction in the mainstream construction industry can be a money-making prospect — by getting paid to take the building apart and from the sale of recovered materials. Beyond Waste’s first “high profile” project was at the Presidio, a former Army base located on the south shore of the Golden Gate entrance to the San Francisco Bay. In 1994, the Army turned the Presidio over to the National Park Service, which was directed by the Clinton administration to convert the base into an “environmentally oriented, recreational-educational working laboratory for sustainability.”

A consortium of three enterprises — Beyond Waste, Inc., San Francisco Community Recyclers (a recycling service and resource conservation organization), and Wood Resource Efficiency Network, an Oregon-based conservation research group — got the contract to deconstruct one of the two buildings, a 9,200 sq. ft. warehouse. A crew of five salvaged about 66,000 board feet, or 87 percent of the wood in the building. With the expenses and income from the sale of the wood, the net cost of the project was $9,340, compared to the demolition bid of $16,800. Beyond Waste also got into manufacturing flooring from some of its reclaimed lumber. “We beat a demolition bid by $12,000, and with the money earned from that job, bought milling and molding equipment to process the recovered wood into flooring,” says Pavitra Crimmel co-owner of Beyond Waste. “As we develop this part of the business, we will offer more products, such as wainscoting and baseboard moldings. We also will feature some of the products manufactured by our customers.” — K.G.