More American renovators are thinking 'green'

By Tom Beal

Most demolitions and remodelings don't involve the scale of the neighborhood makeover at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base. Tucson's large stock of outdated housing will likely be taken down or renovated one home at a time.

Pima County has 62,800 homes that will be at least 50 years old by 2010, according to a housing market analysis done for Pima County and Tucson in 2005. You can't hire a concrete grinder when you're tearing down a single house. You can't justify the cost of a recycling program for a single room or a kitchen wall.

Consequently, 80% of remodeling waste goes to the landfill, said Greg Miedema of Dakota Builders, which specializes in remodeling. Even with that waste stream, Miedema said, renovating is a "greener way" of doing things. Adding value and years of life to an existing home beats tearing it down and starting over, he said. "We're recycling a house, so to speak."

Waste would more often be recycled if it were easier to do, he said.

He recently took a trailer full of aluminum window frames saved from multiple jobs over the years to a scrap dealer. The salvage fee didn't compensate for his time, let alone storage and transportation costs, Miedema said.

Miedema suggests "collection points" to aggregate reusable construction waste. He also urges a communitywide effort to upgrade the energy-efficiency of existing homes and extend their lives.

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