WASTE EQUALS FOOD                                                                        Greenbuilders Newsletter No. 2 At least for me, the difference between theory and practice is never more clearly differentiated than in recycling.   The theory is to divert as much as possible of construction waste from the trash heap/ land fill.  This means demolition, which can produce at least twenty different types of materials, from hand-cut antique nails to old wood to plaster, siding, drywall, or asphalt shingles.  It also means construction, which even if you are careful about waste produces a surprising number of bent nails, empty glue containers, broken bricks, and wood scraps.  Not to mention the fact that real people eat McDonald’s and leave half-empty food and drink containers about.  I refuse to leave preachy little notes, and even if I did, there would still be a continuing litter about my pristine construction site. In order to recycle, most of this must be separated into piles of like materials.  So in theory, one five minute dismantling of a closet wall will produce six or eight tiny piles each of which must go to a different disposal site.  In practice, one sometimes says “OH, JUST THROW IT AWAY!” and the carpenters look at one gratefully. Partly because it is so pesky in practice, it’s extremely gratifying to find a use for some idiosyncratic little item of construction waste.  I offer oddments to my carpenters and helpers and have seen a burglar-proof grill or a complex metal dog guard trundled off to a new life as a trellis for a rose to climb or a grate for an outdoor fireplace.  I have saved a few blocks of cut up concrete floor to be dumped into the holes for deck supports, as fill.  All the scraps from framing lumber, including the otherwise hard to use pieces with lots of nails in them, I now cut up and take home for kindling in my woodstove.  Whole armies of less than perfect cabinets, mirrors, doors and windows have gone off to help in the rehab of rental units or to be resold through the Loading Dock, a local non-profit organization.  And of course, there is the occasional real find like historic beadboard, reused as wainscoting. The process is contagious.  Both workers and clients get a gleam in their eye as they survey the piles of what would once have been seen as useless trash.  Everyone, without exception, in this country has gotten the message that there’ s something special about salvage or re-use of a serviceable item.  Even if we’ve only been here two weeks, we’re all Yankee, we’re all American, we’re all clever about re-using something we got for free. Waste equals food.  This is architect William McDonough’s formulation for nature’s way in which dust returns to dust.  I was thinking how it would be if we saw people that way; if when someone loses a job or fails to get into the college of their choice, we saw them only in terms of their potential for some other path. One of the most powerful human stories I know is that of James MacLaren.  An athlete who lost his left leg to an automobile accident, he later became known as the fastest man in the world running on a steel leg.  He ran a marathon in three hours sixteen minutes, and competed against able-bodied athletes in triathlons.  He was competing in a triathlon when a city official accidentally allowed traffic onto the race route.  Jim was hit again, and this time was confined to a wheelchair. Jim regards his life, including his injuries, as a gift.  He is a motivational speaker and was honored recently in L.A. with the Arthur Ashe award for inspiration in athletics. As a writer and as a human being he is a wonderful friend and a powerful example.  In a recent column from ZenDoFitness newsletter, used with permission, Jim wrote:  “It seems to me that the same intensity and discipline that went into my graduating from Yale, or finishing a triathlon, can be used in dealing with fears that arise in my life from being in a wheelchair.  It takes an incredible amount of training to compete in triathlons.  It takes the same amount of intensity, maybe more, to just sit still.” Jim MacLaren has taken what could have been a wasted life and transformed it into food for the soul. www.jimmaclaren.com                                                        home