Dear
James,
There's always a hard way to do things. And then there's an easy
way. In the case of deconstruction, the hard way involves debating
the principles of an outmoded French philosophy with anemic undergraduates
until the world as we know it no longer makes sense. The easy
way, thankfully, has absolutely nothing to do with Derrida hierarchical
dualisms, philosophy, or nerds. Simply put, it's deconstruction-the
actual physical kind.
What you may not know is that
a whole industry exists to recycle or "harvest" building matter,
and your participation is tax-deductible! (This can depend on
what you decide to do with your deconstructed house)
Deconstruction is now a viable
green alternative to demolition. Although dismantling a building
piece by piece isn't necessarily simple-it's more time consuming
and (initially) more expensive-ultimately it's more rewarding.
The costs can be recovered by donating the harvested materials,
everything from insulation to the kitchen sink, to local organizations
such as Habitat for Humanity (who cannot accept used materials
themselves, but often partner with a local salvage yard so that
proceeds from the sale of your item end up in the coffers) and
claiming a tax credit. Often the very same salvage yards offer
a deconstruction service and will lead you through the process
from start to finish.
One such operation, Boulder, Colorado-based
ReSource 2000, has in the past year allowed deconstruction clients
to claim tax deductions ranging from $2,900 to $65,000. Ben Spencer,
their deconstruction coordinator, points out that anything salvaged
from a pre-1950s structure qualifies as antique, and materials
from the 1980s to the present can compete with new products.
Operations such as the Institute
for Local Self-Reliance are working on a national, regional, and
local level to make deconstruction available in more communities
by establishing retail yards and aiding in training. ILSR's deconstruction
program manager, Jim Primdahl, recently helped train 48 unemployed
housing-project residents to dismantle 348 decrepit HUD townhouses
in Washington, D.C. "It's one of the few things that's really
a win-win situation," he says. " It's a totally different science
than putting together a building and once contractors learn of
this option, they're often thankful. You might have gotten 25
good years of use out of a product or material-and be done with
it-but that's not to say that it won't be good for another 25
years. Deconstruction takes the embodied energy of the material
to highest level."
In the end, deconstruction benefits
both the future owner of your kitchen cabinets, and possibly you
on April 15.
©2002 Dwell At Home in the
Modern World
