Since our first meeting with the City’s Lena, Rachel and Jon, our group has been interested in creating a dialogue with a range of firms including building contractors, disposal companies, and construction material suppliers.  Considering that these firms will be providing a steady flow of material to the Deconstruction Hub, we would like to contribute in the investigation of the best possible way, in terms of feasibility and logistics, of getting material from the deconstruction site to the Hub. We also would like to tackle the challenge of encouraging deconstruction over demolition.

We came up with a draft list of survey questions to ask these firms during a verbal interview.  These questions aim to 1) gain an understanding of firms’ current disposal practices and determine what’s being discarded that could be reused, and 2) get some insight into firms’ thoughts and opinions on the deconstruction hub concept.  We sent this list to Rachel, who made some suggestions and gave us the OK to pursue this line of action.

The initial dialogue would be conducted over the phone, emphasizing only our role as UBC students doing research on the viability of a used building materials center in Vancouver.  The entirety of the survey could take place over the phone; however, ideally we hope to be able to arrange a meeting with a company representative or participate in a tour of their operations in order to gain first-hand experience and really understand the full picture of what we’re dealing with.

Below is the list of questions we have for the various firms:

1) Briefly explain your current disposal and/or hauling practices? Costs?

2) Do you divert any materials for reuse or recycling?

3) What materials are being disposed of or not sorted that could be recycled or reused?

4) Is there currently any sorting taking place on construction sites you are working at or hauling from? To what extent?

5) In your opinion, is additional sorting on site a possibility? Why or why not?

6) How many different types of waste COULD be separated at site? What might that look like?

7) For contractors, do you ever do your own hauling?

8) For haulers, who are your main clientele?

9) Do you believe there is a market in Vancouver for firms to provide deconstruction services? (As opposed to demolition). If not, what types of incentives would need to be offered for firms to enter that market?

10) Do you believe a deconstruction hub could work in Vancouver as a private enterprise? If public support was required, how much would be reasonable?

11) Do you have any ideas about common construction waste materials being reused in a new and unique way?

12) Would you be willing to continue to be involved in the dialogue as a deconstruction hub concept begins to take shape?

13) What are your largest concerns surrounding this deconstruction hub?

14) What are the implications or sacrifices you have to make to incorporate the deconstruction process?

15) What additional resources or support would be necessary to make the process as seamless as possible?

A time line for the next few months is still underway since we just recently received approval to pursue this contractor dialogue.  Now that we have the all-clear, we have a few things to get done.

First we’ll be setting up an email address specific to the Hub so that we can allow the contractors we engage with to stay involved and informed.  We’ll also be spending time going over the research material provided to us by Lena. These sources contain very useful information on pilot projects, case studies, market analyses, and training manuals.  We will need to cover much of this ground before we begin phoning up contractors and haulers, so that we have some idea of what is tried and true.  From there, we will begin honing our cold-calling skills and hopefully getting out into the field to find out for ourselves how this deconstruction hub is really going to work.

Background

On Thursday January 31, both City Studio teams met with City of Vancouver Staff at City Hall to discuss aspects of City Studio and how each team can play a role in developing the new initiative.

The staff we met with described to us exactly what a Deconstruction Hub is: A visionary idea that seeks to divert construction and renovation waste from landfills, and instead reuse and recycle the materials.  The City wants to see a facility built that receives used materials from construction sites, and then sorts, digitally archives, stores, and retails material. The Deconstruction Hub is intended to launch the city into attaining the Zero Waste aspect of the ambitious Vancouver 2020 Greenest City Action Plan – reduce waste by 50% from 2008 levels.

The following image shows a flowchart of the city’s preliminary concept for the hub:

The City has already researched Deconstruction Hubs that have been implemented successfully elsewhere, such as Portland. They have hired a consultant who has worked with many of these deconstruction hubs throughout the U.S. and he has been able to translate such a project into the context of Vancouver’s policies and property values.  They have also conducted a pilot project deconstructing a single family home in Vancouver to determine how much material can be recovered –a whopping 93%.  Construction and demolition waste makes up 22% of landfill waste, of which 50% is wood waste.

Project scope, goals, and constraints

Part of what makes this project so exciting is that, because the hub is still in the conceptual stage, there is quite a bit of flexibility when it comes to defining what the project will be and envisioning how the hub will actually work.

The purpose of the hub is to allow convenient, all-in-one collection and redistribution of materials, where the responsibility lies with the contractor to sort and haul most the deconstructed material.   The hub will collect, sort, digitally archive, store, and retail material.  There is also a possibility of including a space to refurbish and build items like furniture for retail on site.  This recovered material could be purchased by anybody from whole-sale manufacturers to non-profit building organizations to individuals working on small projects.

The City is looking at potential sites for the hub and one proposed location is near the Home Depot on Terminal Avenue.  Due to high land prices, the hub must be reasonably sized, and designed in a way that it can be duplicated in other municipalities.

Project Ideas

In order to split up the project between the two City Studio groups, we discussed two distinct possibilities:

Human Interface – Looking at how to “get people in the door”. This would involve educational programs, marketing, public consultation, and other activities to make the hub a place and a system people will appreciate and want to participate in.

Materials flow – A model for what the hub will look like on the ground. The model would describe the logistics of collection, back-end sorting, and retailing, along with human traffic flow through the building.

One of the major factors that will determine the success of the hub is the degree to which contractors will participate in deconstruction. The City is looking to incentivize contractors to deconstruct homes rather than demolish them by offering a deposit for the amount of material recovered.  In the meeting, we discussed the possibility of putting together an educational “how-to” guide for contractors to follow for the deconstruction process. We also considered developing an accreditation system in which contractors would be awarded some kind of green certification should they comply.  This aspect of the project is something that members of our group are very excited about.

We left the meeting feeling very excited about the project and ready to begin working out the finer details.  The City staff revealed to use that we could have a real impact on how the Deconstruction Hub is created as the project is still in the preliminary stages.  They encouraged us to think outside of the box and welcomed any new ideas that we come up with.