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Green Alternative

A Win-Win Proposition

When We Don't Deconstruct

  • Ignoring unwanted buildings can be costly due to continuing insurance and tax expense. Deteriorating buildings may become a liability if an accident occurs or someone gets injured.

  • Demolition costs will include significant machine time to knock down the building and to pulverize and consolidate the resulting debris. Disposal costs at landfills will be based on the volume and weight of debris created from the demolition.

  • Burning or burying demolition material in rural areas is less controlled than landfill disposal and can be even more harmful to the environment.

  • Demolition debris is not sorted, so materials that could be recycled or repurposed wind up in the same pile as everything else.

  • Our taxes pay for the maintenance and upkeep of current landfills and for establishing new ones when those are filled. 

Deconstruction Solution

  • Careful deconstruction of your building and removal of materials that can be repurposed or recycled will substantially limit the amount of material to be disposed of, and machine time will be limited as well.

  • Every ton of material recycled or repurposed is a ton diverted from the landfill.

  • Reusing materials requires less energy and raw materials usage than producing new products.

  • Many reclaimed materials are of higher quality than new. (distressing new wood to make it look old, or manufacturing vinyl or ceramic products that have the appearance of old wood flooring).

  • Buyers of reclaimed materials are happy to source beautiful old wood, fixtures and other materials.

  • The process requires many, many hours of careful work with hand tools. Jobs are created when buildings are deconstructed. 

C&D Waste

In 2017 Wisconsin landfills acquired 8,456,336 tons of waste. 329,971 tons of that were construction and demolition waste (C&D). La Crosse county landfill alone acquired 22,744 tons of C&D waste material. Throwing these resources into landfills is not only bad for the environment but extremely expensive as well. 

 

(Wisconsin Department of natural resources.)

https://dnr.wi.gov/topic/Landfills/documents/reports/2017tonnage.pdf

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