‘Unbuilding’ Offers an Eco-Friendly Alternative to Tearing Down Houses

I’ve always thought, passing by buildings being demolished to make way for something new, that surely all of those materials that were being crushed and thrown away could have been used for something else. It seems incredibly wasteful to throw so much into landfills when it could be resold or even donated to charities that help build homes for the poor. I’m not the only one – more and more people are forgoing the old wrecking ball routine in favor of a more eco-friendly model, despite the increased cost and time.

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that some people are choosing to ‘unbuild’ rather than tear down, which makes a lot of sense in today’s climate of heightened sensitivity to waste.

From the Wall Street Journal’s Nancy Keates:

Unbuilding our home will take longer (two weeks) and is more expensive (about $4,000 more) than simply crushing it and throwing everything out. Even with the tax deduction and what we save by reusing our old materials and appliances, we still come out a little behind. But since we are reusing so many things — and because it seemed like the eco-friendly/right thing to do — we decided to go ahead. (Another option is to hire the local fire department to burn it down as practice; that often allows a whole house deduction for tax purposes. Instead of deducting just the pieces, which are worth less.)

This kind of thing is exciting – it represents a change in the way people are thinking about so many different aspects of life. It also means that more history will be preserved, even if it’s taken apart and put back together again somewhere else. The important thing is, all of those materials won’t be sitting in a landfill of no use to anyone at all.

Link [Wall Street Journal]
Photo credit: Flickr user Editor B