By Lee Schaller
Remember when it was just “tear it down and get rid of it?”
Those days are long gone. In many cases, recycling now goes hand-in-hand with demolition, working together toward reducing and reusing as much C&D (construction and demolition) waste as possible.
But are we doing all we can?
We examine that question along with addressing the challenges facing demolition companies in Hawaii, looking at how the industry is doing with recycling efforts, and discussing a few of the current major projects.

Change in Focus?

“Lately more jobs are geared to recycling as much as possible,” says Keith Tajiri, president of Tajiri Lumber, Ltd. “Clients are interested in recycling (the) material.”

Tajiri, the oldest locally owned and operated company in the industry sector, began selling salvaged lumber in 1940, transisting into a demolition company in the 1950s. The scope of its demolition work encompasses hauling, lot clearing, excavation and concrete recycling for a variety of clients. “In 2010,” says Tajiri, “we have completed HRSOC” (Hawaii Regional Security Operations Center) on the NCTAMSPAC (Naval Computer Telecommunications Area Master Station Pacific) base in Wahiawa — dck pacific, general contractor. “We also have completed the Laie Inn and the Kaneohe McDonald’s.” Tajiri reports that 2009 “was very challenging — more challenging than 2008.” But, he adds, “We are staying positive and looking forward towards a better year.” We asked, with the influx of hotel renovation work (see our cover story on Renovation & Remodeling in this issue) whether this has resulted in more demolition work for his company. “No,” he says, “not more work in the hotel/visitor industry. However, there are more commercial projects going on now. The bulk of our projects are with city, state and federal projects but we are involved with private projects as well.”

Gail Suzuki-Jones of the Strategic Industries Division, State of Hawaii Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism (DBEDT), agrees that there is a stronger focus on the importance of recycling within the industry. “Recycling and reuse of construction and demolition material is increasing as more and more agencies, companies and homeowners have become more aware of the various options and benefits involved with recycling and reuse,” she says. Suzuki-Jones also informs us that the City & County of Honolulu Sustainable Building Task Force is working on developing proposals to increase C&D recycling and reuse. We contacted Sherman Wong, pre-construction manager for Kiewit Building Group, chair of the task force’s materials and solid waste committee, for more information. “We are trying to encourage more recycling and reuse of C&D materials,” Wong says, “both in the private sector and within the industry itself. This includes encouraging the use of more green building technologies and strategies. We will be coming up with recommendations to the city council for any bills addressing sustainable building.” Members of the Sustainable Building Task Force represent all areas of the industry, including environmental groups, designers, architects, engineers as well as representation of industry associations such as the AIA (American Institute of Architects) Honolulu, the BIA (Building Industry Association of Hawaii), the GCA (General Contractors Association of Hawaii), the Hawaii Developers’ Council, the Land Use Research Foundation of Hawaii (LURF) and other organizations. We will cover the task force’s activities and progress of the materials and solid waste committee in our upcoming green building cover stories in our June and September issues.

Recovery Plan

“Since we started the deconstruction program in 2007,” says Quinn Vittum, deconstruction program manager for Re-Use Hawaii, a nonprofit organization focused on building material reuse and recycling, “we’ve completed over 70 projects, both commercial and residential. Currently, we deconstruct three to four houses per month. From each project, we recover an average of 6,500 pounds of material that otherwise would go into the landfill. Plus, we’re able to segregate metals and recycle up to 2,000 pounds per project. Homeowners have been delighted with the tax deductions they receive, made possible by the recovery of reusable materials donated from their projects.” Re-Use Hawaii’s current projects include houses in Pearl City (with Armstrong Builders), Palolo (with Atlas Construction) and Kailua (with Dan O’Sullivan Construction).

Quinn Vittum, deconstruction program manager for Re-Use Hawaii, examines recovered lumber from a deconstruction project.

Re-Use Hawaii also now has fully developed its warehouse including racks and a digital inventory system. “We’re able to move a tremendous amount of material through the warehouse and we’re able to sell everything we salvage from our deconstruction projects,” Vittum says. “We’re also receiving a lot of material from contractors and business owners in the building industry as well as from homeowners. Contractors and building suppliers who donate to Re-Use Hawaii receive tax deductions and keep their shops and jobsites clear of unneeded material. Last October we received a donation of 500 used louver doors. Since there were too many to sell in a reasonable time frame, we disassembled them and milled the parts into T&G flooring that’s now being installed in a North Shore home.”
Overall? “Homeowners and certain industry players have worked with us as part of their commitment to keeping Hawaii green. However, we’ve been disappointed by some segments of the industry and their lack of commitment to waste reduction. We’re working to ensure that those companies understand the benefits of deconstruction and building materials reuse. We are hoping they will shift their management directives to incorporate maximized waste reduction, especially those projects which include multiple large buildings.”

The Kaanapali Alii pool is lined with Oceanside glass tile, an 85 percent
recycled glass product supplied by Bella Pietra, which says this is the first time
an entire pool bottom has been covered with glass tile.

 

The Up and Downs of Demolition

Nuprecon, LP, a full-service demolition company headquartered in Washington state, is headed up locally by Alex Cates, division manager of Nuprecon, LP, Hawaii/Pacific division. Based on the list of current jobs Nuprecon is working on in Hawaii, the company is keeping very busy.
“Our current jobs,” Cates reports, “include projects in the Wili Wili neighborhood at Wheeler Army Air Base with Actus Lend Lease; UEPH (Unaccompanied Enlisted Personnel Housing) at Schofield Barracks with Hawaiian Dredging Construction Co., Ltd.; Honolulu International Airport (HNL) escalator renovation with Alan Shintani, Inc.; OST (Overseas Terminal) chiller plant at HNL with Kiewit Building Group, Inc.; Makaala Shopping Center in Hilo with Swinerton Builders; Leilehua High School renovations with Allied Pacific Builders; Moanalua High School renovations with Summit Construction and renovations at Outrigger’s OHANA Islander Waikiki with Nordic PCL Construction, Inc.

“Nuprecon arrived in Hawaii in 2004,” Cates tells us, “and every day, on every project, we continuously are building our core teams of skilled technicians. The teams that demolish the buildings — hotel and condo towers, shopping centers and hospitals — working in the dust, dirt and debris, are the people that contribute their hard work and abilities to allow for accomplishments such as the Waikiki revitalization and other renovations. They pave the way for the future — development, commerce, tourism, transit systems — that ultimately benefit everyone.

Nuprecon Hawaii’s ongoing work at the Wili Wili neighborhood, Wheeler
Air Force Base, for general contractor Actus Lend Lease

“Nuprecon has earned a reputation as a major recycler in the demolition industry,” Cates adds. “We are very proud to be among a select group of contractors and subcontractors who can deliver LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) projects for owners and developers. We have a group of vendors that we subcontract directly to remove recyclable materials prior to demolition or we deliver the materials to their facilities. But we need more outlets for these recyclable materials.” As to new technology and equipment, Cates says, “Nuprecon has quite an arsenal of machines and tools, from excavators and bobcats to “the coolest equipment for demolition projects,” the remote controlled robotic mini-max machines. “But what trumps any piece of equipment is the team that performs the work. That truly is the best asset Nuprecon has.”

We also spoke with Alan Hornstein, owner and president of Lenox Metals, LLC, a company that offers single source solutions for the collection, transportation and recycling of scrap ferrous and non-ferrous based metals.
“Business is picking up,” he says. “The industry went into an abyss in mid-2008. The price of copper, for example, plummeted and the demand for metal went way down. The marketplace was in disarray; there was no one to sell metal to. But things started to pick up in mid-2009 and the demand for metals started to return toward the end of the year. Currently, we’re starting to see more companies looking at their principal assets (equipment or material) and making a decision about recycling them rather than holding on to them for possible reuse on future projects.” Hornstein, whose company also develops and implements customized recycling programs for clients, reports that he is seeing more awareness and interest in recycling practices. “There’s a more spirited new climate,” he says, “a move to recycle more, an increased focus on energy efficiency. I do consulting with designers and architects, and when we go into a building to redesign it, we ask ‘What can we recycle out in the demolition?’ There also are times when Lenox will partner with another company on a job — for example, with Nuprecon on its airport projects. We provide help with recycling of metals; we move things out based on their timeline. We also worked with Watts Constructors on the Submarine Drive-In Magnetic Silencing Facility at Beckoning Point, collecting and purchasing undersea cable to help eliminate any problematic material. We have found that partnering and creating quality relationships is an important part of where we want to be in this business.”

More Reusable Words

“The biggest challenge in demolition is safety,” says Keith Tajiri. “A project is even more challenging when homes and buildings are close to the project we are demolishing.”

Nuprecon’s Cates agrees, saying, “It’s a very dusty environment and certainly a dangerous one for unskilled labor. That’s why training is so important and having a qualified safety program and culture is absolutely vital.”

Even though some industry members say business is picking up, not everyone in the demolition and recycling sectors is seeing much improvement in 2010.

An Island Demo crewmember performs interior demolition at the
Waikiki Shopping Plaza project.

Mike Leary of kamaaina company Island Demo, for example, says, “2009 was worse than 2008, and so far 2010 is not doing great. Bids are weak and the state has no money. There are no long-term plans for major projects.” One recent high-profile project for Island Demo, which has been providing demolition/recycling services in Hawaii since 1988, was its work on the Waikiki Shopping Plaza expansion with general contractor Swinerton Builders and designer MGA Architecture. MGA project coordinator Joseph Echeverri, emphasized that the general contractor was working closely with Island Demo to divert at lease 75 percent of the project waste away from the landfill. We asked Leary if this had been achieved. “Oh yes, we made that goal,” he says. “There was a lot of concrete recycling on that job.” The company, with its Mapunapuna baseyard housing a licensed construction and demolition transfer station, also recently completed demolition work at Pier 39 for Young Brothers. “We did that job just for the recycle value,” Leary explains. In response to our question on whether the recent mandates on sustainable building, including required LEED-silver certification for significantly renovated state buildings, is creating more business for companies such as his, Leary says, “It all has potential for more work but will it actually come about as intended? The demolition side is only one piece of the LEED puzzle — although an important piece. The entire project has to be planned and done properly.” Leary points out that he has been involved with eight LEED projects beginning with work for Victoria Ward, continuing with the Nordstrom project at Ala Moana and including the recent Waikiki Shopping Plaza, where “we literally recycled the whole building. Very little went to the landfill.”

And that’s really the bottom line.