One of the most important goals of building green is to prevent any natural and man-made material from being dumped into a landfill. Therefore, one must carefully manage all waste that accumulates during the building process.
When we cleared our lot we had to remove nine trees: seven ash trees and two walnut trees. Our project manager, Mike Micozzi, located a company that would transport the ash trees to an Amish carpenter located in Lancaster County who plans to use the ash lumber to make wooden wheelbarrow handles. Of course, it is also very desirable to have any waste turned into a useful product.
Notice that the trees were kept within a local mileage radius of the house as well because wherever possible we try to not have high transportation costs or use more fuel than necessary. The walnut trees have gone to a local mill to be made into lumber and the branches will become mulch, which we will use in the landscape. We must plant nine trees on our lot to replace the nine trees we removed.
Our lot contained big limestone boulders. Fortunately, the excavators did not have to blast to remove the rock from the area where the foundation of the house was being laid. However, we accumulated a very large pile of huge boulders and large rocks. We are using that stone to build a support wall in the rear of the house. In the picture you can see how that natural material is being reused. No fuel has been used to transport it to another site.
In addition, all the waste from packaging is being placed in a special dumpster to be taken to a local recycling center. Scrap wood is also being properly recycled in this area. There is truly an extraordinary effort to find uses for all these materials that will not be used in the house construction.
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