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News Minnesota Home Renovators Reap Rewards of Re-use, Recycling By Martin Moylan | Minnesota Public Radio News GRANT, Minn. (AP) — Hundreds of thousands of tons of construction and demolition waste — much of it from home teardowns and remodeling jobs — end up in Minnesota landfills every year. But some homeowners are learning it’s environmentally, and financially, rewarding when materials from such projects are re-used or recycled. Kim Chapman LaFrence, of Grant, Minnesota, hired a Minneapolis nonprofit, Better Futures Minnesota, to deconstruct her 60-year-old home so she can build a new one. A Better Futures crew carefully dismantled Chapman La- Frence’s house to salvage building materials for re-use and recycling. As they worked down to the foundation, deconstructors reclaimed wood flooring, cabinets, doors, windows and anything else that could be readily re-used. Everything else got tossed into a dumpster that went to Atomic Recycling for further sorting for materials such as metal from wiring and vents. “People regularly shop it who are home renovators, flippers, artists, DIYers. You can go in and pick up a door for $35,” he said. Better Futures also tries to help people renew their lives — by employing and training men returning to the workforce after time in prison. Melvin Stewart was part of the crew assigned to deconstruct Chapman LaFrence’s house. “I enjoy construction,” he said. “This is the first time I’ve actually done deconstruction. You learn a lot about how different buildings are constructed, especially older buildings.” The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency says Better Futures could pave the way for other organizations. “We’ve actually used the phrase, `the Better Futures model’,” said Melissa Wenzel, a sustainability administrator with the agency. “It feels good knowing that my house is going to live on in other projects,” Chapman LaFrence said. And she expects a tax break, too. “They’ll take an inventory of the things that they take,” she told Minnesota Public Radio News. “And then we’ll get an appraisal and get a tax deduction for the value of the donation.” Last year, Better Futures did about 30 deconstruction projects. A crew of between five and 10 takes two weeks to 20 days to take apart a house. But the nonprofit says tax deductions for homeowners can make deconstruction a wash — or even cheaper than demolition. Homeowners have received tax-deductible donation credits ranging from $5,000 to more than $100,000. With Better Futures, less than a tenth of unwanted materials from a tear-down or remodeling project may end up in a landfill. “Almost everything that comes out of the house is going to hit re-use with the exception of things that have to get recycled,” said Jason Burbul, who recruits deconstruction customers for the nonprofit. People are eager to buy and re-use appliances, cabinets, sinks, flooring and other reclaimed items donated to the organization and sold from its Minneapolis warehouse. Burbul estimates prices are about 30 percent of new value. 20 | Chief Engineer
Jason Burbul, of Better Futures, poses inside of a home being deconstructed in Grant, Minn. Burbul recruits deconstruction customers for Better Futures, salvaging what they can for the company's Minneapolis warehouse. (Evan Frost/Minnesota Public Radio via AP) There are about two dozen salvage and re-use firms in the state. Some just take houses apart. Others like Habitat for Humanity and Bauer Brothers focus on reselling items salvaged from homes. But Wenzel said Better Futures handles the entire process. Much of the debris from home tear-downs and other home projects could be re-used or recycled, but in Minnesota, most of that stuff ends up in landfills, where it threatens groundwater quality. Monitoring devices at 43 Minnesota construction and demolition debris landfills without protective liners have detected worrisome levels of arsenic and other pollutants. “When the materials go into landfills, money is being thrown away — money went into it, energy went into it,” Wenzel said. MPCA is working on strategies to better protect groundwater around landfills and reduce the flow of construction and demolition debris to those sites by encouraging more re-use and recycling, Wenzel said. One working group is focusing on landfills and environmental protections, another concentrates on reusing demolition materials. (Continued on page 22) Trust your Cooling Tower with the Professionals... We provide Engineered Solutions to optimize your towers performance and provide energy savings. Bullock, Logan & Associates, Inc. COOLING TOWER REPAIR & PARTS Celebrating 25 Years Bullock, Logan & Associates, Inc. In Industry Cooling & Heat Transfer Excellence cbullockjr@bullocklogan.com bbullock@bullocklogan.com www.bullocklogan.com | P: 847-434-1200 Volume 85 · Number 4 | 21
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