It might be garbage to some, but Habitat for Humanity turns one home's trash into another family's home.
Construction waste takes up a massive amount of space in landfills. Nationwide, there's twice as much construction debris (sometimes shortened to C&D) as normal trash generated every year. To give you some sense of scale, in 2018, that means that 145 million tons of C&D went into landfills—as much as 150 Golden Gate Bridges!
Most of us might think of recycling drink cans or plastic bottles, but not construction materials. However, plenty of C&D can be re-used. Paving materials can often be recycled into aggregate. Metals can be melted down and re-used. Wood can be recycled into composite products. And, when it comes to recycling materials in Rochester, Habitat for Humanity provides one avenue. We talked to John Timm, General Manager of the Re-Store for Two Rivers Habitat for Humanity, to learn more.
"What the Re-Store does is take secondhand items from people and sell them between 25% and 50% of traditional retail…The whole purpose of the Re-Store is to raise money for Habitat so that we can build more homes for people," Timm explained.
While many nonprofits and thrift stores take furniture and other used items, the Re-Store is one of the only places in the area that takes building materials. "Tiles, wood, flooring, carpeting, all that different type of stuff…Between the contractors and the people that we talk to, we've saved a lot of that from getting thrown in landfills," said Timm.
Every year, Habitat tallies up how much material they've saved from landfills. The total? On average, more than 300 tons per year!
The benefits go beyond reducing the strain on our local landfills, though. At a time when Rochester home prices are skyrocketing, last year, Two Rivers Habitat for Humanity were able to place two families into new homes, and they're refurbishing another home that was in rough shape. At least 30% of the materials in that home were salvaged and re-sold. In another area, their appliance recycling bench has raised enough money to buy two and a half plots of land for future home construction.
Of course, nonprofits aren't the only ones who can use construction materials in creative ways. In April, we host Studs, Struts & Stilettos, a construction fashion exhibition where all the designs must be made of construction materials. This year, the show will benefit Two Rivers Habitat for Humanity. You can check out some of the previous designs and entries here.
Recycling construction materials takes a little creativity, resourcefulness, and a bit of community participation, but we're excited to put on a show for one nonprofit that has it well in hand.
