Recycling | Swamplot

10/10/12 1:26pm

Mining Houston Garbage for Recycling and Compost Gold

The city of Houston has applied for a grant to help it develop a “dirty MRF” (rhymes with “smurf”) — a recycling center that would sort and mine garbage, using an assortment of machines, scanners, and density separators to separate recyclables, electrical items, compost, and dry materials that could be resold. A materials recovery facility envisioned by sustainability director Laura Spanjian and chief development officer Andy Icken would be similar to one in Roseville, California, that opened in 2007 and “harvests” almost half the waste sent to it. You can follow along a kiddie-led tour of that MRF in this video:

CONTINUE READING THIS STORY

Landfills, Proposed Developments, Recycling

Comments

09/12/12 5:41pm

Comment of the Day: You Pay, We Salvage

by Swamplot

Construction Materials, Quicklink, Recycling

5 Comments

COMMENT OF THE DAY: YOU PAY, WE SALVAGE “. . . Under the new business model, which is consistent with national models used by various non-profits involved in deconstruction and restores involved in reselling reclaimed materials, the donor of the house will now pay to have the materials reclaimed because they are the ones benefitting from the charitable contribution for the gift of the materials. As an example . . . a property owner could simply demolish a house . . . send everything to the landfill and they will have a cost associated with that for about $8,000.00 with no tax benefit. OR . . . the donor can donate the house to Historic Houston, pay for us to deconstruct/salvage the house, which may cost an additional 3,500-5,000.00, so a total cost of letâ€™s say 13,000.00 to demolish the house. In every instance I have ever dealt with, the charitable contribution for the gift of the materials FAR EXCEEDS the total cost of the demolition and salvage sometimes multiple times over. . . . If doing deconstruction and reclaiming building materials was such a HUGE profit center and money making proposition . . . there would be all kinds of competition out there in this growing market . . . but in fact thereâ€™s not . . . because itâ€™s really hard work getting the material out, and storing the material until someone (hopefully) buys it is really expensive and the profit margin is incredibly low . . . thrift store value. . . .” [Lynn Edmundson, commenting on Fundraising To Reopen Historic Houstonâ€™s Salvage Warehouse]

Comments, Construction Materials, Recycling

Comments

09/06/12 12:51pm

Comment of the Day: Demolition Is in the Eye of the Beholder

by Swamplot

Construction Materials, Quicklink, Recycling

3 Comments

COMMENT OF THE DAY: DEMOLITION IS IN THE EYE OF THE BEHOLDER “. . . I see lots to be salvaged and given to Habitat for Humanity. All that wood flooring, everything in the kitchen, especially the stainless countertop and appliances, french doors, louvered closet doors, balcony railings inside and out, granite bar top and light fixture, bathroom cabinets and granite countertop, tub. Not sure if the tile flooring can be taken up, and the plate glass windows would be tough to pull without breaking. I would love to plan and build a house around items from Habitat. I have seen some very unique things there. For now, I just have a greenhouse with a door, leaded glass sidelight, and jalousie windows from Habitat. And some really neat ceramic tiles that I plan on putting on the potting bench. Iâ€™m going to go back and get reclaimed brick for the patio.” [Lynn, commenting on Daily Demolition Report: Passing the Red Baton]

Comments, Construction Materials, Demolitions, Recycling

Comments

09/08/11 6:02pm

Comment of the Day: There Goes the Church, There Goes the Steeple

by Swamplot

Demolitions, Greenway Plaza, Quicklink, Recycling

No Comments

COMMENT OF THE DAY: THERE GOES THE CHURCH, THERE GOES THE STEEPLE “Yes, the stained glass is being salvaged. The old pipe organ went to UT and many other art pieces were saved. It is unfortunate to see this go, but it is just a building. The Church is the people. Mark 13: â€˜1 As Jesus was leaving the temple, one of his disciples said to him, “Look, Teacher! What massive stones! What magnificent buildings!” 2 “Do you see all these great buildings?” replied Jesus. “Not one stone here will be left on another; every one will be thrown down.”â€™” [Jeromy Murphy, commenting on Mod Richmond Ave. Church Ready To Fall for New Apartments]

77027, Churches, Comments, Demolitions, Greenway Plaza, Recycling

Buying and Selling

07/29/11 11:46pm

Comment of the Day: Salvage Value

by Swamplot

Comments, Construction Materials, Modern Design, Quicklink, Recycling

No Comments

COMMENT OF THE DAY: SALVAGE VALUE “I am not attached to the nice appliances, wood floors, etc. . . . but they have a very large and easily accessible resale market . . . its not being sentimental it is just not wasting money on something that can easily be resold. A mod house like this has a very small market. Only a select few like this style of house, and even fewer are willing to pay for them.” [Marksmu, commenting on Battle Over Swank Sugar Land Supermod Won By Komatsu Excavator]

Buying and Selling, Comments, Construction Materials, Demolitions, Modern Design, Recycling

Buying and Selling

06/01/11 9:11am

Heights-Area Recycling Center Going to the Cleaners

by Swamplot

First Ward, Quicklink, Recycling

28 Comments

HEIGHTS-AREA RECYCLING CENTER GOING TO THE CLEANERS Up for a vote in this morning’s city council meeting: The sale of the First Ward recycling center at 3602 Center St. to the owners of a neighboring property for $2.01 million. Under the agreement, the city would lease back the 1-acre lot near the corner of Washington Ave. and Heights Blvd. for 18 months from Admiral Linen Service — for free. A plan to set up a new area recycling facility on Spring St. was halted 2 years ago. Update, 1:20 pm: Voting on the issue has been postponed until next week. [Houston Politics; previously on Swamplot] Photo: Alexander W.

77007, Buying and Selling, First Ward, Recycling

Hazards

07/23/10 8:51am

Houston Sidewalk Theater: Is That Recycling Bin Really in Your Way?

by Swamplot

Streetscapes

12 Comments

An in-depth investigation.

Video: Khalil Abusharekh and Jackie Carpenter

Hazards, Recycling, Sidewalks, Streetscapes, Videos

Gardening

04/06/10 10:28am

New Rules for Yard Waste

by Swamplot

Landscape, Quicklink

45 Comments

NEW RULES FOR YARD WASTE After several delays, Houston’s new yard waste regime finally goes into effect this week. From now on, if you want city trucks to pick up your leaves and lawn goodies, you’ll need to put them in city-approved compostable bags. The 39-gallon bags cost 50 to 80 cents each — as much as 8 times the price of conventional plastic bags — but city officials claim the change will save $1.5 million a year in waste-disposal fees and divert 60,000 tons of material from local landfills. The money saved will be used to expand the city’s automated curbside recycling program, but nobody’s reporting how we’re possibly going to make up the landfill gap. Don’t feel like shelling out for the bags? The Solid Waste Management Dept. is encouraging thrifty homeowners and yard crews to adopt the complicated technique of “grasscycling” — leaving grass clippings on lawns — and to start their own composting programs. In a few weeks, the city will begin doling out fines of up to $2,000 to residents who put leaves and clipping into city garbage containers. [Houston Chronicle; where to buy]

Gardening, Landfills, Landscape, Recycling

Bellaire

03/05/10 2:15pm

Bellaire Dumps Its Recycling Center

by Swamplot

Openings and Closings

6 Comments

Bellaire’s city council voted this week to shut down its 2-decade-old recycling center on Edith St. near Lafayette Park. The city’s recycling committee attributes the site’s declining popularity to the city’s new curbside recycling program:

When the [curbside] program was expanded in 2008, pickup increased in tonnage from 1,231 to 1,578 tons collected in 2009, a 28 percent increase. During that same time, tons dropped off at the Bellaire Recycling Center has dropped to 347 tons in 2009. As recently as 2005, area residents dropped off 989 tons of recycling.

City Council votes to close Recycling Center [Bellaire Examiner]

Photo of Debbie Marshall Bellaire Recycling Center, 4402 Edith St: Wikimedia Commons

77401, Bellaire, Openings and Closings, Recycling

Demolitions

10/06/09 5:54pm

The Slowest Demo in Town: Karen Lantz Pulls a House Apart

by Swamplot

Green Design and Development, Museum District, Ranch Estates

28 Comments

Meanwhile in Ranch Estates, architect Karen Lantz is deconstructing this 1950 Rancher, piece by piece. Her goal: building a new home on the site — but only after finding new homes for most of the materials that are already there.

This type of disassembly is almost unheard of in Houston, where relatively low local landfill tipping fees make crushing and dumping a much cheaper alternative. After 5 local demo companies turned down the work, Lantz decided to contract it all herself. She says she expects to be able to recover and donate 90 percent of the materials in the Banks St. home. Working with an appraiser, she’s been sending materials to the city’s new Reuse Warehouse, Habitat for Humanity of Northwest Harris County, the Houston Habitat Restore, Century Asphalt Materials, and Lone Star Disposal.

“The house going up will absolutely be going for LEED, hopefully the highest rating,” Lantz tells Swamplot. It’s intended for her and her husband. Lantz, the founding president of Houston Mod, says it’s been difficult to convince clients to commit time, energy, or funds toward this sort of attention to materials. Since she’s now preaching the benefits of building deconstruction, she sees this project as an opportunity to practice it.

How much will it cost to strip the place this way?

CONTINUE READING THIS STORY

77006, Building Deconstruction, Construction Materials, Demolitions, Green Design and Development, Museum District, Ranch Estates, Recycling

Cancellations and Delays

07/06/09 8:10am

The First Ward Fights Off a Recycling Center

by Swamplot

First Ward

13 Comments

Some vocal residents of the First Ward are happy to learn that plans to move a recycling facility to the Harris Moving & Storage location at 1904 Spring St. (pictured above) have apparently been halted. A staff member in the office of newly elected councilmember Ed Gonzalez has indicated to a neighborhood group that Mayor White’s administration has agreed “not to pursue” the relocation.

The 24-hour drop-off recycling center currently operating at at 3602 Center St. (just east of Heights Blvd.) will now apparently stay where it is. Admiral Linen, operators of a facility next door to that location, had wanted to purchase the property from the city.

The Solid Waste department’s plan would have resulted in a recycling center directly adjacent to the not-quite-finished MKT/SP Hike and Bike Trail along Spring St. between Houston Ave. and Taylor. A group of First Ward residents was upset at that plan, and was further angered when the department’s director referred to their neighborhood as “an industrial area” in a neighborhood meeting.

CONTINUE READING THIS STORY

77007, Cancellations and Delays, First Ward, Rails to Trails, Recycling

Comments

05/26/09 4:59pm

Comment of the Day: House Parts

by Swamplot

Construction Materials, Demolitions, Quicklink, Recycling

No Comments

COMMENT OF THE DAY: HOUSE PARTS “I drove by the house at 701 Olive during the demolition. I was curious to see if any efforts were made to keep any of the items out of a landfill. What I saw was a house, complete with furniture, cabinets, ceiling fans, windows, clothing, etc. getting crushed by a bulldozer and scooped into a roll off. I saw 3 french doors that would have looked great in my house getting smashed to bits. Such a shame :(” [mstark, commenting on Daily Demolition Report: Bacher House Down]

Comments, Construction Materials, Demolitions, Furniture, Recycling

Construction Materials

05/13/09 11:18am

Recycling Houston Building Parts

by Swamplot

Green Design and Development, Independence Heights, Quicklink, Recycling

2 Comments

RECYCLING HOUSTON BUILDING PARTS A new city-run Reuse Warehouse that’s been open for just 2 weeks at 9003 N. Main St. (just north of Crosstimbers) is designed to reduce the amount of excess building materials dumped into landfills. The warehouse accepts donations of extra building materials, and offers them for free to nonprofit organizations. What can you donate? “Cabinets, copper, doors, electrical fixtures and equipment, fans, flooring material, glass, gutters, hardware, lighting, lumber, metal, mirrors, pipe, plumbing, plywood, roofing material, screens, sheetrock, sinks, showers, trim, tubs, wall coverings, or windows” but no paint. “More than one-third of the waste stream in the Houston area is made up of construction and demolition material.” [Green Houston, via Hair Balls]

77022, Construction Materials, Independence Heights, Recycled Materials, Recycling, Sustainable Development & Green Design

Bankruptcy

04/30/09 8:03am

Bankrupt Houston Recycler

by Swamplot

Quicklink, Recycling

5 Comments

BANKRUPT HOUSTON RECYCLER AbitibiBowater, the Canadian paper company that runs Houston’s residential recycling operation — and which recently began a pilot single-stream program in a few Houston neighborhoods — declared bankruptcy earlier this month. “The central question is how this bankruptcy could impact the city’s already abysmal recycling rates, which city officials hoped would go up considerably after the implementation of single stream, a wood-waste program and an upcoming contract for recycling in city buildings. Gary Readore, the chief of staff for the Solid Waste Management Department, said he has spoken with Abitibi officials in Houston who said the bankruptcy would not impact their operations.” [Houston Politics]