Today I had the opportunity to visit an exciting project a partner is working on. That partner, Humanim, is an NGO dedicated to workforce development and social enterprise. Their DETAILS program provides job training and employment for people in the local community with barriers to employment. They deconstruct vacant buildings and process the materials for resale and reuse. This diverts these waste streams from landfills (and avoids them being buried onsite) and converts these materials from a waste to a resource.
DETAILS is presently under contract with Baltimore City to deconstruct a block of row homes on Eager Street.
The team has deconstructed a number of units; the units in the right side of the frame run to the end of the block and will also be included
The team deconstructs the structures into “bricks and sticks”. Approximately 3,000 bricks, 400 square feet of flooring, and 800 board feet of framing lumber are recovered from each unit.
Bricks have had mortar removed and been stacked, palletized, and wrapped for shipment
Framing lumber is extracted, sorted, and banded for shipment
Max Pollock of DETAILS holds a piece of high quality pine flooring recovered from the site
The DETAILS program is creating jobs by turning a waste into a resource, hitting the sustainability triple bottom line of ecology-economy-community.
You can follow the progress of the project on DETAILS Deconstruction project blog, Baltimore Brick By Brick. It includes contact information if you want to get in touch with the DETAILS program regarding use of sustainably recovered materials.
The US Forest Service Northern Research Station and Forest Products Lab are partners with Humanim in the Baltimore Wood Project.
The Consulting Group at SavATree provides provides project support to the US Forest Service Baltimore Urban Field Station.
People + Trees in Cities 