Building construction and the recycling ethic
From: Fred H Olson WB0YQM (fholsonmaroon.tc.umn.edu)
Date: Sat, 2 Sep 1995 09:10:20 -0500
I realize that the Subject: of this message 
(Building construction and the recycling ethic)
is generally an oxymoron but it should not be...

I was out at Monterey Cohousing here in Minnesota last night for supper
and viewing the construction progress (basement stud walls and 
floor joists for the first floor are mostly in).  On the way up to 
John's unit in the common house (to consult a map related to some
pro wetland organizing...), he mentioned that there was a nice
piece of plywood in the dumpster that he didn't feel like digging out.

So I decided to do a little dumpster diving. (got it and some other 
nice 2 by 's ).  I got to thinking about an article I read recently
(in the Mpls Star Trib I think) that there are a few efforts to
deal with construction waste more in keeping with the recycling ethic.

Executive summary from memory:
1) Spec materials more closely to reduce waste
2) Separate waste on the jobsite and despose of more appropriately
3) Take mixed waste to sort/reuse/recycling centers

What's this got to do with cohousing?  Well if I were picking a builder
I'd ask if they do 1 and 2 above and note the response.  If you get
a dumb look they'd get one little minus.  If they respond intelligently
(whether they are doing yet or not) I'd be favorably impressed and 
look more closely because I'd expect this would correlate with other 
positive aspects of such a contractor such as thinking about what they 
are doing and how it will function for the end users.  Sorry if I sound
overly skeptical of construction workers but I think the construction 
industry has over relied on "brute force" approaches rather than 
"elegant" solutions (software development terms) and most
workers have little choice but go along.  It's the (current) system.

Fred

--
Fred H. Olson   fholson [at] uci.com   (612)588-9532  Amateur radio: WB0YQM
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