Congress Could Boost C&D Recycling, Deconstruction

A bill being introduced to the United States House of Representatives in January could offer “support for green infrastructure, housing rehabilitation [and] renewable energy generation on vacant properties,” according to one of its supporters.

The Community Regeneration, Sustainability and Innovation Act of 2009 (CRSI) has been designed to create a new program within the U.S. Department of Housing and Community Development (HUD) targeted toward cities and metropolitan areas experiencing large-scale property vacancy, abandonment and population losses.

The act’s supporters say it will provide assistance to communities to start or expand land banks that establish public control over vacant and abandoned property so that property can be redeveloped or otherwise used in ways to “benefit the public.”

A summary of the CRSI act, prepared by its authors, says, “The Community Regeneration Act would encourage innovation, experimentation, and environmentally sustainable practices through collaborative efforts to reuse land bank properties in ways that will provide long-term benefits to the public, whether it is through the creation of green infrastructure, economic development, or other strategies. Implementation of such strategies would create new and sustainable employment opportunities for residents. The Community Regeneration Act would also strongly encourage multi-jurisdictional or regional approaches to addressing the problem of vacant and abandoned property.”

Brad Guy, a deconstruction consultant and former president of the Building Materials Reuse Association, says he was pleased to have been asked to provide input for the language of the bill as it relates to deconstruction and the re-use and recycling of materials.

Page 9 of the act, as currently proposed, says an allowable use of funding is for it to go toward the “establishment of recovered building materials reuse and recycling infrastructure, facilities, and technical support.”

Another allowable use of funds, found on page 10 of CRSI as currently proposed, is for the “establishment of local government purchasing requirements for deconstruction to make use of existing building materials stock in new and rehabilitation construction.”

In areas where land banking has created a portfolio of vacant properties, the CRSI also says that both the “deconstruction and demolition of vacant and abandoned properties” and the “demolition and removal of public infrastructure” can be funded through the act.