Commercial Demolition Produces New Recyclable Materials

When you think of demolition, you may imagine a wrecking ball leaving a mound of material headed for the dump. While this association made sense several decades ago, it is not the way of the modern demolition contractor. Oregon’s most successful demolition companies now recycle as much as they can on-site. It seems every month brings a new story of how demolition specialists can harvest recyclable materials, thereby cutting the environmental costs of demolition.

We are excited to be contributing to this new trend in industrial, residential and commercial demolition. Oregon firms like Elder Demolition are working closely with subcontractors and demolition machine manufacturers to come up with more efficient, thorough ways to recycle salvaged building materials on-site. This eliminates the fuel spent trucking demolished materials to processing centers, and it keeps tons of concrete, steel and other architectural trash out of our landfills.

Here are a few of the most commonly salvaged materials on a demolition site:

Steel Processing

Steel provides the skeleton for most buildings, so it’s not surprising that any demolition job typically involves tons upon tons of steel scraps. Cutting-edge commercial demolition contractors offer steel processing in addition to demolition. For instance, here at Elder we maintain a fleet of powerful steel cutting and sorting tools; we’re also one of the most thorough steel metal recyclers you’ll find on the West Coast.

Concrete Crushing

Modern buildings also contain tons of concrete. High gas prices have spiked the costs for shipping concrete to far-away recycling facilities. Smart demolition firms have responded by acquiring on-site concrete crushers. These gargantuan machines do require a hefty investment on the part of the demolition specialist – but they provide a handsome return, since they can turn concrete into site fill, pipe bedding and even sub-base layers for roads. Our concrete crusher makes us one of the most sought-after demolition contractors west of the Mississippi. This process helps our clients earn LEED points for the reuse of materials.

Building Material Repurposing

Salvaged building materials, doors, light fixtures and sinks can see new life through deconstruction. This form of demolition is highly labor intensive, as it must often be done by hand. Deconstruction offers the chance to salvage nearly all reusable materials in a home or office building. For instance, when demolishing the Tuesday Club, an 11,000-square-foot building in downtown Sacramento, the demolition firm Two Rivers was able to salvage 37,500 century-old red bricks, which were sold to the City of Sacramento for 92 cents each.

Wood, glass, asphalt pavement, roof shingles, PVC piping and ceiling tiles are a few of the other materials that can be salvaged by an expert in building demolition.

As one of Oregon’s leading demolition recyclers Elder Demolition can handle the recycling of materials for even the largest projects, and we are passionate about helping the earth by salvaging as much as possible. If you’re looking for an earth-friendly demolition contractor, give us a call today.