Why Reuse? Why Community Forklift?

“Reduce, reuse, recycle” – a jingle you’ve surely heard.  But what’s the deal with that middle word – “reuse”?  Local green business Community Forklift knows the deal.  It practices daily, widescale reuse of something too often wasted: building materials.

In case you haven’t heard, too many unnecessary building materials are produced and they’re typically produced and transported using environmentally-damaging methods.  Then they’re regularly discarded by contractors, manufacturers and homeowners while still perfectly useable or even unused.

Reusing building materials reduces the need for building material production and transportation.  It prevents usable materials from filling over-filled, pollution-causing landfills and incinerators.

Reusing building materials also supports deconstruction – a growing industry which is meeting an urgent need, seeing as over half of U.S. solid waste is construction and demolition debris which could easily be deconstructed and reused instead of bulldozed.   Like that’s not enough, reusing also saves money and improves communities.  By donating building materials to reuse centers like Community Forklift instead of trashing them, donors earn tax deductions instead of paying dumping fees.  Reused materials can also be sold cheaply.  This affordability helps more people (homeowners, small businesses, churches, nonprofits, temples, nursing homes, homes for the disadvantaged, schools, etc.) afford repairs and renovations – making (as CF’s website assures) “neighborhoods cleaner and safer,” and helps schools, artists, theatre groups, etc., afford art materials or props.  Antique materials can be used by renovators to preserve historic buildings.  Less debris at landfills and incinerators saves local governments and taxpayers money.  Deconstruction also creates jobs and can cost the same or less than traditional demolition.

CF reuses used (”salvaged”) building materials and prevents the wasting of new (”surplus”) building materials.  Both the salvaged and surplus materials come from donors – homeowners (often working on remodeling projects), contractors or manufacturers (needing to unload excess, discontinued or flawed materials), Deconstruction Services (a local deconstruction business) and Junk in the Trunk (a local waste removal business which donates or recycles as much of the waste it collects as possible).

Of course, reusing can’t stop the need for material production and transportation completely.  However, using earth-friendly methods can greatly reduce the environmental damage of these processes.  Better methods include sustainable local harvesting and mining, local production, renewable energy-powered transportation, using renewable resources and avoiding toxins.  Don’t worry – CF covers this step too by selling “new green” products.  One source is the Virginia-based company Nature Neutral, which offers unused products produced using green methods, such as bamboo or cork flooring, non-toxic cotton insulation and all-natural insect and weed sprays.  Another provider is Treincarnation, a local supplier of sustainably-harvested, local lumber.    Earning it yet more eco-Brownie Points, CF acts locally by supporting nearby green businesses – those already listed, Green Home LLC (another CF donor – and customer) and over a dozen others linked to on the website.   Reducing waste, material production and fossil-fuel use?  Check.  Saving money?  Improving communities?  Check; check.  Reusing building materials does it all.  And (in addition to their many other planet-protecting choices) Community Forklift reuses like our lives depend on it.

Photo Credit: CC-licensed by Flickr user Incase Designs