Material Reuse

Shed constructed by Syd Dumaresq using salvaged lumber from the EAC renovation.

One of our guiding principles was to ensure that as little material as possible was taken to the landfill. Conventional renovation projects put a lot of material into the landfill. Depending on the scale of renovation, up to 25%-50% of the original biomass of a building can end up in the landfill.

In order to avoid this, EAC has worked hard to re-use and recycle as many materials as possible. We carefully sorted all of our construction waste.

• Much of the plaster from the original building was removed and 9.3 tonnes were taken to C&D Recycling. Old plaster is made from lime and horse hair, and is biodegradable.
• All wood that was not reused in the building was taken to a welding shop and used to heat the building over the winter.                                              
• Lath removed from the plaster & lath walls was broken into small pieces and many, many people picked it up to use for kindling. Longer pieces were saved and continue to be used creatively to create pea trellises.
• All metal removed from the building, including t-bar from the dropped ceiling, and copper and lead pipe from the plumbing system, was recycled.
• Extra TrueFoam insulation was inserted into interior walls to provide additional insulation and soundproofing.
• Many items, such as reusable t-bar, acoustic panels, old wall panelling, reuseable cellulose insulation, fluorescent lighting, electric baseboards among other things were posted on HRM Freecycle and reused by freecycle members.

 

Built Environment Committee

Phone: (902) 429-2202
Fax: (902) 405-3716

The Built Environment Committee meets the second Thursday of every month at 5:30pm at the EAC. All are welcome at our monthly meeting.