infoCycling, Special Edition on Deconstruction, June 2000

In this issue:

• Cover Story: Deconstruction Projects Promote Diversion

• Deconstruction Goes Hollywood

• Santa Fe Springs: Former Oil Refinery Site

• Atherton: Deconstruction Ordinance

• Closed Military Bases Open Deconstruction Opportunities

• Paper Mill Offers Reuse Opportunities

Deconstruction Projects Promote Diversion Opportunities Throughout California

In 1999, Californians sent more than 4.3 million tons of construction and demolition (C&D) waste to landfills, some 11 percent of all waste disposed in the state, according to the recent statewide waste characterization study (www.ciwmb.ca.gov/WasteChar/Study1999/) conducted by the California Integrated Waste Management Board. The sheer amount of construction materials in the waste stream suggests that jurisdictions can make significant progress in attaining their diversion goals by finding ways to reduce C&D waste.

"Deconstruction" means carefully taking apart a structure piece by piece to maximize the recovery of building materials for reuse. Conventional demolition means crushing an unwanted building into little pieces with a bulldozer or other heavy equipment. When this occurs, many valuable construction materials are destroyed.

Interest in deconstruction is gaining popularity in recent years as builders, architects, local officials, and others look for environmentally and economically superior alternatives to demolition. Jurisdictions gain diversion opportunities and benefits by encouraging deconstruction. These opportunities create the following economic, societal, and environmental benefits:

Economic Benefits (Cost Savings)

• Reducing disposal fees.
• Selling salvageable materials, such as lumber, windows, doors, appliances, scrap metal, and fixtures.
• Creating markets to resell the salvaged materials, such as artwork and flooring.
• Helping reduce purchasing costs by reusing materials.

Societal Benefits (Jobs)

• Creating entry-level construction jobs.
• Job training and nonprofit partnerships.
• Creating markets to resell the salvaged materials, such as artwork and flooring.

Environmental Benefits (Resources Saved)

• Reducing pressure on remaining forests due to wood reuse.
• Reusing materials taken from the structure, such as lumber, concrete, windows, and doors, instead of disposing them.

Every deconstruction project is unique and has to be evaluated for materials that will be generated, the local markets, labor costs, time frames, and overall feasibility. The following articles contain a wealth of information on different types of projects that took place in various areas of California.

If you would like additional information on deconstruction, access the Board’s construction and demolition website at www.ciwmb.ca.gov/ConDemo/. For other assistance, you can call your local assistance staff contact at (916) 341-6199.

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Deconstruction Goes Hollywood

Looney Bins, located in Sun Valley, California, offers construction, demolition, and Hollywood studio recycling services.This innovative program promotes diversion through deconstructing temporary structures. If these structures are not reused, then deconstruction is the environmentally friendly thing to do.

While most jurisdictions do not have motion picture studios, deconstruction could be used for other types of temporary structures including school plays, fairs, and special events.

The company provides "drop" boxes to collect wood, cardboard, metal, plastic, and other salvageable items generated at studios when the sets are torn down. After collecting the "drop" boxes, staff at Looney Bins sorts the deconstruction debris by material type, then sells or donates the material to businesses and organizations throughout California and Mexico.

The President/CEO of Looney Bins, Myan Spaccareli, stated, "Separating materials for reuse and recycling can be cost-effective compared with disposal. Revenues generated through the sale of upgraded recovered materials, plus the avoided disposal cost savings, regularly exceed labor costs incurred through sorting the material." Mr. Spaccareli used the Board’s California Materials Exchange (CalMAX) program, which can be accessed at www.ciwmb.ca.gov/CalMAX/, to find reliable markets for these types of materials.

Materials Salvaged by Looney Bins
Below are several of the markets Looney Bins has found for reusing and recycling materials.

• Salvaged wood collected twice a week to make new pallets.
• Salvaged wood sent to Mexico for construction projects.
• Salvaged wood is used to make planter boxes by a nearby nursery.
• Telephone poles recovered from the set of Warner Brothers "Lethal Weapon 4" used in the Special Olympics.
• Nails, screws, and building materials are shipped to Mexico and hospitals overseas by customers.

Amounts Salvaged

Looney Bins has salvaged an impressive amount of materials. Some of these materials are listed below.

• Over 1,200 tons of wood from Sony Studios was recovered and marketed.
• Over 200 cubic yards of polystyrene has been diverted from landfills.
• Over 3,000 tons of drywall has been diverted. (The gypsum recovered from the drywall is used as soil amendment in Southern California citrus orchards.)
• About 1,300 tons of wood has been ground for mulch, composting, and fuel for energy production.
• About 600 tons of metal has been recycled from construction sites and studio productions.

Mr. Spaccareli estimates that over 90 percent of the studio materials handled by Looney Bins is reused or recycled.

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Santa Fe Springs--Diversion Opportunity at a Former Oil Refinery Site

Golden West Refinery operated as an oil refinery from the 1930s to the mid-1990s. The current owner purchased the property in the early 1970s and operated the refinery until the mid-1990s. Recently, the owner and a developer have been working together to deconstruct this site.

The developer and the City of Santa Fe Springs want to comply with the Integrated Waste Management Act and agreed to recycle and reuse as much of the on-site material as possible. The 275-acre site included a tank farm area where 95 aboveground tanks were located. Generally, the capacity of the remaining tanks is between 5 million and 7.5 million gallons each (this was also the capacity of those taken down). From the outset, the developer looked at all possible ways of keeping materials from going to a landfill.

One of the many tanks taken down at Golden West Refinery. Select image to see a larger (30 KB) version; use "back" button to return to this page).

Below are some of the results:

• Most of the 95 aboveground tanks were taken down in the last 18 months; the metal from the tanks was sold as scrap to dealers in Texas or California, depending on market conditions.
• The refinery residue and tank bottoms (the leftover material in the bottom of the tanks and vessels) was taken to asphalt batch plants and used as a component of the asphalt.
• Most of the on-site valves and pumps were sold to salvage companies, which refurbish and recycle this equipment.
• All the concrete and asphalt materials were crushed on site using a portable crusher. Most of the crushed material was reused on site in the form of road base under the new streets, or as foundation for the new buildings.
• Specialized refinery equipment, such as the cracking plant, hydrocracker, and unifiner were sold intact to other refineries or related businesses or were salvaged and recycled.
• The remainder of the refinery has been sold as scrap.
• Whenever possible, contaminated soil is being treated and reused on site. In some cases, the soil has been thermally treated offsite; the treated soil has then been returned and is being reused on site.

Crushed concrete to be used on site at Golden West Refinery. Select image to see a larger (28 KB) version; use "back" button to return to this page.

Material salvage and recycling for 140 acres was accomplished in approximately 18 months.

The table below ("Diversion Reporting Summary") reflects tonnage diverted for 1999 and the first quarter of 2000.

In addition to the data in the table, 26,700 barrels of waste oil and residual products were recycled in 1999; 6,500 barrels were recycled in the first quarter of 2000.

Because this site is a former oil refinery, site remediation is mandatory. To clean up the site, the property owner is working with the Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board. After the appropriate cleanup has taken place, the developer immediately begins the redevelopment phase.

To date, approximately 140 acres have been redeveloped and are in some phase of construction. A great deal of thought has gone into developing environmentally friendly buildings and areas.

Eventually, 15 new industrial and commercial buildings will be constructed, which totals 2,752,990 square feet. Building sizes range from 21,000 square feet to over 500,000 square feet. The remaining area will be devoted to landscaping and street rights of way and parking. Eventually, another 2.5–2.8 million square feet of industrial/commercial construction will take place.

When in full operation, the refinery employed 350–450 people in various capacities. Employment in the new development is estimated to increase to 3,500–5,000 when the site is fully developed.

Diversion opportunities through this project have been tremendous. Diversion tons are expected to increase as deconstruction and remediation occur on the remaining 135 acres of the site.

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Deconstruction Ordinance Assists Atherton Diversion

In Atherton, a city with a population of 7,000 south of San Francisco, deconstruction is the law. The Atherton City Council passed an ordinance stating that "Every structure planned for demolition shall be made available for deconstruction, salvage, and recovery prior to demolition."

The City of Atherton works with several deconstruction service providers to deconstruct houses. One such provider is Whole House Building Supply and Salvage (a full-time deconstruction company).

The City of Atherton and Whole House Building Supply and Salvage’s (WHBSS) goal is to salvage as much material as possible before a house is demolished. WHBSS’s deconstruction process includes the following:

• A representative from WHBSS makes arrangements with the owner to look over the house and take pictures with a digital camera. These pictures are put on WHBSS’s Web site so potential customers get a sense of what is in the house before they go to the site.
• The house is evaluated to see if a "house demolition sale" should be conducted onsite. (If a house is too small, remote, or decrepit, a sale is not conducted. However, arrangements are made to have one of WHBSS’s employees go out and remove any salvageable items.) If the house does warrant a sale, a schedule is made with the owner and contractor, which includes a date for the sale, the time to price and label the house components, and a time to remove the materials. (Depending on the deconstruction project, this entire process has been done in a week or less.)
• Before a sale, WHBSS sends several thousand e-mail alerts and several hundred fax alerts, and contacts several hundred people by phone, giving information about the date and time of the sale.
• The sale is usually conducted on a weekend. WHBSS monitors the sale to see that removal of materials is done safely. (Everyone who enters the structure must sign a liability waiver.)

After the "house demolition sale" is conducted, customers load the materials they purchased directly into their vehicles. "This is a very cost-effective way of moving materials," explains Paul Gardner of WHBSS. Materials diverted include everything that goes into the construction of a house (from the mudsill up).

To date, there have been 20 "house demolition sales" in Atherton, which include sales at houses of less than 1,000 square feet and as big as 5,000 square feet. Composition of the recovered materials sold from these deconstruction projects are shown in the table below.

After recovered materials have been sold, the remaining salvageable materials that are in good condition are brought to Whole House Building Supply and Salvage’s warehouse, where they are offered for sale. These materials include landscaping items, rafters, terracotta roof tiles, floor joists, studs, cabinets, sinks, and heating systems.

"Deconstruction is helping Atherton work toward meeting diversion goals," states Ed Cooney, a recycling specialist with the City of Atherton.

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Closed Military Bases Open Deconstruction Opportunities

Perhaps more than other Americans, Californians have felt the pinch of military downsizing: 29 of the nation's 97 major base closings happened in the Golden State. But resourceful Californians are striking old-growth gold on former military bases, mining high-quality timber cut 50 or 75 years ago to construct barracks, clinics, warehouses, and other buildings.

For instance, deconstruction of a warehouse at San Francisco’s historic Presidio yielded more than 65,000 board feet of marketable lumber. The haul included 15,000 board feet of Port Orford cedar flooring. This strong, fragrant, and pest-resistant wood is found only in small pockets of northwest California and southwest Oregon. The building also contained some 750 pristine, close-grained, small-knot No. 1 grade 2- by 12-inch Douglas fir floor joists.

Nonprofit groups, job-training agencies, and base-closure panels are planning and implementing deconstruction at several former installations in California.

• At the Oakland Naval Supply Center, low-income workers deconstructed six huge warehouses, diverting more than 1,800 tons of materials from local landfills.
• At Sacramento’s Mather Air Force Base, public and private partners—including the CIWMB—joined forces to deconstruct four former military residences.
• At Monterey’s sprawling Fort Ord, deconstruction of four buildings salvaged tons of materials and provided valuable data on deconstruction costs, timelines, and hazardous waste handling.
• At the Alameda Naval Air Station, the deconstruction of two small buildings diverted five tons of wood and metal from local landfills.

The Presidio of San Francisco

Located at the northern tip of the San Francisco peninsula, the Presidio has a military history dating back at least to 1776, when it was a Spanish garrison. It became a U.S. Army reservation in 1848, and was turned over to the National Park Service (NPS) in 1994. Federal policy-makers charged the NPS with converting the base into a "working laboratory for sustainability." So, citizens were dismayed when the demolition contract allowed the contractor to demolish the buildings and sell the wooden residue for mulch or boiler fuel.

Prompted by public outcry, the NPS attempted to sell entire buildings. When that failed, a coalition of architects, recyclers, and activists, working with the NPS, removed one potentially valuable building from the demolition contract. Three enterprises—San Francisco Community Recyclers, Beyond Waste of Sonoma, and Oregon’s Wood Resource Efficiency Network—formed a consortium to deconstruct a 1940s-era warehouse. In just four weeks, Beyond Waste’s experienced five-person crew tore the warehouse down, using only a reciprocating saw and hand tools. In all, 87 percent of the building was reclaimed.

The Presidio consortium was given $16,800 to deconstruct the building, a "take-back" from the demolition contract. (Demolition estimates for similar buildings are typically much more). The NPS pitched in another $15,000. Building deconstruction costs barely exceeded $33,000.

However, sales of the first 34,000 board feet of reclaimed lumber netted more than $30,000, and there was plenty of good wood yet to sell. In hindsight, noted Phil Kreitner of the Wood Resource Efficiency Network in his project report, some of the materials—especially the Port Orford Cedar flooring—were sold below their true value. Even so, the Presidio deconstruction was profitable, and more than 80 tons of wood were diverted from area landfills.

"Indeed, for structures with adequate quality and quantity of wood components. . .we are within reach of the ability to make no-fee (deconstruction) bids, reaching breakeven with income derived solely from the sale of salvaged materials," wrote Kreitner in his report.

Impressed with the consortium’s initiative, the Presidio demolition contractor tried its own deconstruction project. Its inexperienced five-man crew, armed with hand tools and a front-lift tractor, dismantled a 60- by 165-foot two-story former machine shop in six weeks, salvaging some 50 tons of old-growth Douglas Fir framing and decking, some pieces more than 30 feet long.

For more information, see the Presidio case study on our Construction and Demolition Web site.

Mather Air Force Base

At Mather Air Force Base, home-builder Kaufman and Broad teamed up with the Sacramento Housing and Redevelopment Agency (SHRA) and the CIWMB to dismantle four military residences, making way for new homes in a rapidly growing area.

Homes being deconstructed at Mather Air Force Base. Select image to see a larger (58 KB) version; use "back" button to return to this page.

Thanks to a CIWMB contract, 30 workers participating with SHRA’s construction preapprenticeship program were trained on deconstruction. Reclaimed materials were sold on site. Predeconstruction efforts donated hundreds of refrigerators, dishwashers, ranges, and smaller appliances to local thrift stores and nonprofits.

Besides saving valuable materials and reducing disposal, workers received training. "The contract from the waste board allowed us to provide deconstruction training to 30 low-income individuals," said SHRA’s Greg Wessel. "These individuals learned how to recognize job site hazards like asbestos, exercise fall-prevention techniques when working on roofs, become certified forklift operators, and gain hands-on skills in ‘unbuilding a structure, piece by piece," stated Wessel.

Oakland Naval Supply Center

Oakland weathered years of bad times before several base closings added to those woes. But the Youth Employment Partnership (YEP), a local nonprofit, saw opportunity in the enormous (three acres each) empty warehouses at the former Oakland Naval Supply Center.

The Port of Oakland wanted the buildings removed, and YEP devised a program focused on job training as well as waste diversion. So far, more than 120 low-income youth have learned real-world job skills, 75 percent of them moving on to jobs in the private sector. YEP plans to train another 60 youths over the next year.

In the meantime, YEP has recovered more than 1.3 million boardfeet of lumber, including old-growth redwood, Douglas fir, and hemlock. According to program coordinator Chris Thomas, YEP pre-sold $100,000 worth of the wood to Community Woodworks, a nonprofit partnership formed to serve as a central purchase and sales point for regional deconstruction projects.

Community Woodworks used a grant from the William and Flora Hewlitt Foundation to prepurchase the wood from the warehouses, giving YEP working capital to purchase equipment and pay for training. Additionally, in its building removal contracts with the Port of Oakland, YEP negotiated to have 30 percent of the contract amount paid in advance.

Capitalization is critical to deconstruction/training programs, said Thomas. Up-front costs included supplies and equipment, wages and counseling services. Banks generally loan money for new equipment, he noted, but used equipment is more affordable and more appropriate for inexperienced workers.

Wood sales revenue and deconstruction contracts do not cover YEP’s program costs, but do leverage grants and help build comprehensive, sustainable programs.

"We’ve got a training program that is very realistic," said Thomas. "There’s a cost to the taxpayer, but with any training program, there’s cost to the taxpayer...and there are environmental benefits here. It’s a great bang for the buck."

Ford Ord

During its heyday, Fort Ord in Monterey County housed as many as 35,000 service persons, family members and civilian employees on a chunk of land about the same size as the City of San Francisco. When it closed in 1994, some 1,200 wooden structures and 700 concrete housing units were slated for demolition, at an estimated cost of more than $120 million.

The cost of the demolition, and the need to create jobs in a region that had lost half its population, led the Fort Ord Reuse Authority (FORA) to consider deconstruction. The David and Lucille Packard Foundation provided funds for a feasibility study and a pilot project.

Working with local businesses and government agencies, FORA deconstructed four buildings representing the different types of structures on the base. Project managers kept meticulous records about the time necessary to accomplish tasks, dust levels on the site, even levels of lead and zinc in workers’ blood.

Some 90 percent of the building materials were salvaged for reuse. On site sales attracted plenty of buyers; some materials were donated to charity. The biggest challenge, noted FORA’s Stan Cook, is reusing thousands of board feet of high-quality Douglas fir siding covered with lead paint. If clean, the boards would be worth about $4 million. But the cost to clean the wood is estimated at $6 million, so it remains stockpiled. FORA continues to investigate methods to remove lead-based paint from wood.

Beyond diverting materials and creating jobs, the Fort Ord pilot project’s purpose was to quantify deconstruction labor requirements, to assess the value of reusable materials, and to determine the amount of hazardous materials in buildings and their disposal costs. The results of the pilot project were memorialized in a detailed project report, and are referenced at www.fora.org/pilot.html.

Alameda Naval Air Station

At the Alameda Naval Air Station, a crew of five, three of formerly homeless, deconstructed two buildings. A local furniture manufacturer purchased some of the wood. The activities culminated more than two years of negotiations with military and civilian authorities.

"Base closure presents distinct opportunities and challenges for conversion in a larger sense. The Alameda pilot showed deconstruction to be comparable in cost to demolition, a valuable employment and training opportunity, and successful in diverting valuable resources from the landfill," concluded Lisa Geller of the Materials for the Future Foundation in the Alameda project report.

"While capturing these benefits on a wide scale will still require significant changes in the current base-conversion process, the social and environmental benefits of deconstruction are significant."

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Paper Mill Offers Reams of Reuse Opportunities

On a thin strip of land on the north end of Humboldt Bay, workers are starting to dismantle the Simpson Paper Company Pulp Mill, which closed in 1992.

Workers from SOS Demolition Services are disassembling old motors, valves, and fittings, which are being sold to other businesses. SOS is soliciting buyers for large items, like the powerhouse, the drying kilns, and the boiler, which can be reassembled elsewhere and used again.

"What we are trying to do is to disassemble and resell for parts as much as we can. We want to maximize anything that can be saved," SOS’s Pat Walters said. "We have a heavy economic interest in reducing waste as much as possible."

Metal tanks and other items, which are too rusted to be reused, will be resold as scrap, said Walters. Most of the buildings will remain; however, some portions of the old mill which intrude into the bay may ultimately be removed, pending approval of a coastal development permit. This removal should result in better views from nearby Eureka Harbor and improved habitat for local marine life.

Publication #341-00-011

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