Gov. Andrew Cuomo estimated 5 million tons of construction and demolition debris is generated annually in the New York metro area. Much of it ends up in the mid-Hudson.“Due to the rural nature of the mid-Hudson Valley area and its proximity to New York City, illegal dumping has been an especially difficult problem through the region,” Cuomo said in February 2017. “Haulers see an easy way to cut costs by dumping loads of waste sourced from New York City in the mid-Hudson Valley.”
Heather Patterson builds three dimensional sculptural mosaics using found wood, sea glass, ceramics and metals. Collecting the unremarkable evidence left behind — items that are washed up on a beach or tossed on the street, construction materials from demolitions and renovations–Patterson takes what is overlooked and connects them to a new purpose.
Cuddy Recycling Ltd, a start-up firm supported by the Welsh government, is establishing a wood, plasterboard and gypsum recycling centre in South Wales. The centre, which represents an investment on £1.2 million, will be the first of its kind in the area and will create 22 jobs.
The facility will process and recycle demolition aggregates from construction and demolition projects in Wales, in addition to waste timber and plasterboard, which will be sourced from the construction sector and civil amenity sites. The aggregates will be sorted for reuse within the construction industry and waste timber will be used for biomass fuel, panel board manufacture and animal bedding. The plasterboard will be reused in plasterboard manufacture where possible and the gypsum will be recycled as a soil conditioner for application in the agricultural industry. It may also be used as a cement additive.
via Welsh start-up to build recycling facility for construction and demolition aggregates.
An EU-funded research project has laid the foundations for change – it is promoting concrete, ceramics, gypsum and plastics recycling around Europe.
Recycling and re-using parts from old buildings makes sense – it creates less waste, makes construction cheaper and reduces the use of raw resources (more than 50% of all materials extracted from the earth are currently transformed into construction materials and products).
Projects like this show that there’s really no reason to waste anything in construction anymore! The eco-conscious Casa Estero Puente in Puerto Varas, Chile, was built using wood salvaged from abandoned villas in the area.
Brazilian artist Henrique Oliveira recently completed work on his largest installation to date titled Transarquitetônica at Museu de Arte Contemporânea da Universidade in São Paulo. As with much of his earlier sculptural and installation work the enormous piece is built from tapumes, a kind of temporary siding made from inexpensive wood that is commonly used to obscure construction sites. Oliveira uses the repurposed wood pieces as a skin nailed to an organic framework that looks intentionally like a large root system.
The sculpture features analogue weather gauges and antique gas lanterns. The backing is made of the remnants of die-cut metal, and the effect is almost delicate — the huge piece of sculpture is a latticework of framing.
Bagley rescues his materials from all over. The wood he has used in two of his most recent pieces, including Looking Glass Prairie, came from demolition sites around downtown Oklahoma City. When the construction began for the extension of Interstate 40, quite a few buildings downtown had to be demolished.
“Most of those buildings were built in the 1950s, and they were all new growth, most of it Douglas fir,” Bagley said. “They were literally paying to have it dumped in a hole in the ground.”
Bagley saw potential in that wood, and it was too beautiful to pass up. He said that no one even challenged him when he took it. With a coat of clear varnish and Bagley’s transformative powers, what was destined for disposal became art.
Construction and demolition debris wood that once helped make energy is, instead, taking up space in the landfill, where it will lie, indefinitely, until it decomposes.
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“We suspended using that material, which, unfortunately, has caused some hardship to us and our suppliers,” said Sarah Boggess, a spokesperson for New York-based ReEnergy Holdings. “We’re hoping circumstances will change.”
The plants stopped using demolition debris wood because of the June 5 enactment of changes to rules in Connecticut on renewable energy credits, according to Boggess and Greg Leahey, senior vice president of asset management for ReEnergy.
The changes, she said, mean energy produced with construction and demolition wood no longer qualifies for class 1 renewable energy credits. The firm had been selling renewable energy credits generated by its operations in Maine in the Connecticut renewable energy credits market.
ReEnergy’s Maine plants still are operating, but now they make electricity using only “green” biomass, such as brush and other forest material, which is still eligible for renewable energy credits.
The sculptural installation “Phoenix” consists of a pair of massive phoenix sculptures made of materials scavenged from urban construction sites in China. Designed by Chinese artist Xu Bing, each bird weighs 12 tons and ranges from 90 to 100 feet in length.
photos by Hideo Sakata/MASS MoCA
via Phoenix, A Pair of Massive Phoenix Sculptures Made of Chinese Construction Debris.
