Honolulu is considering how to promote deconstruction and re-use of the materials from buildings that are being torn down, an idea that has already caught on in other cities. When Kilauea erupted in 2018, thousands of earthquakes struck Volcanoes National Park and irreparably damaged its Jaggar Museum. Its foundation was cracked, and the caldera edge it’s built on was damaged.
For six years it sat closed until work began to remove it last month. But instead of excavators and wrecking balls demolishing the museum and sending the debris to a landfill, contractor Re-Use Hawaii is carefully deconstructing it with the hope of its materials being used again in future projects. “Essentially what we do is look at how the building was built and approach in the opposite order,” Re-Use Hawaii executive director Quinn Vittum said.
The materials that would ordinarily be sent to a landfill are diverted to one of Re-Use Hawaii’s redistribution sites, where customers can buy second-hand materials like lumber and windows for their own projects. The idea of recycling buildings is gaining momentum in Honolulu, where the question of what to do with construction and demolition waste has become more pressing in the run-up to the island’s two landfills closing. One potential solution is to promote deconstruction, according to a recent draft final report from the city’s Source Reduction Working Group.
Other cities like San Antonio and Portland, Oregon, have ordinances that mandate decons.