Among the many “firsts” in Buffalo with the Extreme Makeover Home Edition project is the introduction to the local market of an entirely new kind of “green” job—involving the documentation of construction waste recycling efforts on the job site.
Through an innovative partnership brokered by Mayor Brown's economic development department, WasteCap Resource Solutions, the nation's leading construction waste recycling organization, partnered with Buffalo's Minority Contractor Alliance. The first of its kind partnership in the US developed and implemented a construction and demolition waste recycling plan for the Extreme MakeOver Home Edition project right here in Buffalo.
Over a dozen MCA members took part in the week-long monitoring and verification of the construction site's waste materials. Demolition and construction veteran Mr. Jabril Shareef, who led MCA's efforts in the field, ensured Makeover's construction workers and volunteers put all waste coming off the site in its correct place for maximum recycling. “We organized dumpsters for separating scrap metal, wood, cardboard, even drywall coming off the construction site.” By vigilantly monitoring the construction site, each designated box was kept from being contaminated by non recyclable and reusable materials. “Keeping each box clean we made we were maximizing the value of the material's reuse and ensuring there would be good markets for the its reuse, rather then sending it all to a landfill like projects before us” said Shareef.
No one has done this kind of job at this level before in Western New York. These are truly a new kind of job. The construction waste recycling industry is growing fast in US cities like Chicago.
While MCA was donating its labor, like everyone did on the Extreme Makeover site this week, as Community Partners with WasteCap we are eager to provide these services on a paid basis for other construction projects looking to save money through avoided disposal costs or obtain any number of new “green” certifications. Regional builder David Homes has committed to construction waste recycling on their future new built homes. We're ready to provide those services for them, and others.
MCA founder, Michael Peterson, sees providing construction waste recycling plans and on site monitoring as a natural addition to the contractor services MCA has long provided. “We have members of the Alliance who do demolition, lead abatement, framing, heating and cooling, general contracting and more. These recycling services are responding to a new market demand,” Peterson projects. Increasingly, companies want to be environmentally responsible and one way to prove it is through certification programs like the US Green Building Council's Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Green Building Rating System™ , Green Guidelines for Healthcare, or what Extreme Makeover's new home construction in Buffalo this week is pursuing through David Homes--the National Association of Homebuilders' “Certified Green Professional Designation.” President Obama signed an executive order that all new Department of Defense building projects recycle their construction waste. States like Wisconsin also have such regulations, as do an increasing number of cities.
WasteCap's Jim Birmingham, who was on site since Monday, has monitored dozens of such projects throughout the country. “WasteCap has provided such services to building owners, builders and developers on over $3 billion worth of construction projects, achieving average recycling rates of 70% which all together have diverted over 267,000 tons of construction waste from US landfills,” he reported. “This Community Partnership with Buffalo's MCA can grow that kind of environmental business here. We're pleased to be a part of it,” said Birmingham.
Mayor Byron W. Brown applauded the WasteCap and MCA partnership, forged by the City of Buffalo, and noted that “this will form WasteCap’s first community partnership in the US. This is the kind of technical assistance and knowledge transfer from national organizations to local companies that responds to market opportunities and creates jobs. I hope builders, architects and devlopers will want to get their green certifications and that they can take full advantage of these new skills in the local marketplace. When told by MCA and WasteCap that David Homes expected recycling rate would approach 90% o n the Extreme Makeover - Home Edition house, the Mayor congratulated all involved and stated, "with over 4 billion dollars of construction projects planned or underway in Buffalo, there's a lot of landfill waste that can be diverted and create local jobs in the process."
Until next time...Let's Keep Building A Better Community Together!
