After the excitment about tonite's 'grand show' wanes, there is much hard work to be done in countless poor neighborhoods the likes of Mass & Normal Aves.

Mike Gainer, who founded Bflo ReUse is an excellent teacher (Preacher?), as he again demonstrates in his post yesterday.

The challenge for ReUse is to make itself 'competitive' in bidding for the millions of dollars of demolitions looming in Bflo. And in helping the shift from environmentally-destructive 'smash-n-dump' demo's to more environmentally freindly demo's that also have the 'upside' of creating many entry-level jobs for impoverioshed inner-city residents.

I hope that this is the first of many 'GREEN lectures' by Gainer . . .

http://www.buffaloreuse.org/blog/
1 Day Until Extreme Premiere!

by Michael Gainer :: January 23, 2010 at 2:39 pm ::

Sunday night, over 10 million people will watch . . .

For us, Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, the Buffalo Edition, is the culmination of over two years of hard work, ingenuity, and determination. When we started Buffalo ReUse in the Fall of 2006 we did so with the belief that a demolition alternative that reclaims materials, creates jobs, and protects the environment would be great for Buffalo and great for our community. . .

One thing these last two years has taught us is that tenacious attention to reducing costs and increasing efficiency is critical to our long term sustainability. Our mindset and techniques have evolved over time to ensure that we could continue to sustain our effort financially, save materials that otherwise would have been destroyed and dumped, and prove a concept that can advance the Building Re-use industry. . .

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A lot of people have asked, “How much material do you actually save from each house?” . .

The answer is, “Every house is different.” . . .

We’ve learned that we can reliably divert 25 – 40% of a residential building, by weight, from the landfill–that’s what we mean by Green Demolition. On the surface, that rate may not seem terribly significant; however, that material often represents over $10,000 in material value, significant tax savings for our clients, and a reliable source of high quality materials to enable our future efforts.

While we are able to save a lot of materials, we must still throw some away. People are surprised to learn we rarely reclaim any 2×4’s from our demolition projects. . .

The reality of the situation is that the building reuse industry is young and just beginning to crawl. While the many efforts of the BMRA (Building Materials ReUse Association) are consistent and admirable, there’s a tremendous need for advocacy work, policy support, and recycling research to really develop and expand the industry. Efforts in the reuse industry can be further advanced through more research and development into the use of recycled materials such as roofing shingles, drywall, plaster, wood waste, and vinyl products. We need more people in the country engaged in building reuse, so that we can share our learning and techniques to improve the entire industry overall.

Finally, we need policy support to ensure that recycling and reuse is a larger priority . . .

Through this episode, Green Demolition has been put on the map! Now we need your help to grow and expand the effort, so it can be scaled and expanded throughout the country to support the green jobs movement and protection of our environment in a time of widescale global warming. We invite you to get involved. Become a member of Buffalo ReUse and the BMRA and share your expertise, ideas, and energy.