Executive Summary
CET, opens in a new windowVineyard Vision Fellowship, opens in a new windowSouth Mountain Company, opens in a new windowWasteNot, opens in a new windowThe Green Mission, opens in a new windowRecyclingWorks in MA and opens in a new windowCarroll’s Trucking collaborated to deliver a deconstruction project that diverts the maximum amount of building materials through the disassembly of one home on Martha’s Vineyard. This pilot establishes a model for streamlining the recovery of residential building materials through reuse, resale, and recycling. Various organizations supplied their expertise and came together to educate stakeholders about the benefits of deconstruction, coordinate the collection of materials from the job site, provide documentation for leveraging tax incentives, and aggregate the recovered materials for reuse locally and for sale through CET’s reclaimed building materials store EcoBuilding Bargains.
Over a three (3) month period September 2022 – November 2022, the deconstruction pilot at 6 Nora’s Lane (Figure 1) diverted approximately 10 tons of materials from landfills. This represents nearly 23.5t CO2-eq or 4.6 homes’ electricity usage for a year or 1,100+ household trash bags.
Key Takeaways
- Over 10 tons of materials were diverted from the waste stream as a result of the pilot
- Approximately 7 tons of mixed C&D materials were sent for disposal rather than recycling. Recycling of mixed C&D from deconstruction projects would improve recycling rates for these types of projects.
- The Recycling Rate for the pilot is 59% which is above the national target of 50%. Recycling rates from future projects can be increased by sending mixed C&D materials for recycling on the mainland.
- This model can be replicated on Martha’s Vineyard and other areas of the Northeast.
- The keystone to ensuring success of on-site source separation in deconstruction projects is a dedicated on-site project manager, such as SMCo.
- The value of reclaimed materials paid for more than 3/4 of the costs associated with the reclamation efforts.
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