Building a deconstruction policy that works for Pittsburgh

– April 22, 2021

Greetings reuse fans,

This week marked a milestone in the reuse of building materials for the City of Pittsburgh! We hope you all saw the news announced by Mayor Peduto’s issuing of an Executive Order stating the City’s intention to develop unified deconstruction specifications that will be applied to city-funded building removal. Pittsburgh has 1700 condemned properties to which these salvage and deconstruction specifications will be applied. Many of these properties have been vacant and open to the elements for so long that there are no materials to be salvaged, but others will have bricks, framing lumber, flooring and joists, doors and windows, to varying degrees.

Decon Manager Brian Swearingen overlooking a partially deconstructed property.

The most important point is that each property will be evaluated for what can be reused!

There are two cities that have implemented mandatory deconstruction ordinances in the US – one in Portland, Oregon and one in Palo Alto, California. Portland mandates all residential structures built before 1940 be deconstructed. Palo Alto goes even further, requiring all commercial and residential buildings be deconstructed. Other municipalities set landfill diversion requirements based on a percentage of building material “waste” by its weight or volume. Some ban construction materials completely from landfills. Seattle, Washington requires completion of a salvage survey at the time of applying for a permit for whole building demolition or alterations valued at more than $75,000 and/or have an area of more than 750 square feet.

Pittsburgh joins the other cities across the country that are exploring the most effective strategies to address building material waste which comprises about 30 to 35% of the waste stream. While a Portland-style ordinance may not be the best fit for Pittsburgh, the City is setting an important reuse-first standard that hopefully will influence all those who demolish buildings to build new or rehab building to make certain they are considering deconstruction and/or salvage before sending usable building materials to the landfill. You can watch the full press conference via the Pittsburgh City Channel.