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In June 2008, I gave a presentation to the California Association of Local Conservation Corps (CALCC) on deconstruction and building materials salvage. The CALCC represents the 12 private, nonprofit local conservation corps located in San Diego, Orange County, Long Beach, Los Angeles, San Gabriel Valley, Bakersfield, Fresno, Tulare County, San Jose, San Francisco, East Bay, Marin/Sonoma and Sacramento. These organizations operate local recycling centers and provide employment, education and training to over 2,000 young adults annually.

The CALCC wanted to learn how our industry dovetail with their recycling efforts. I was interested, as usual, in educating people concerning deconstruction, building-materials salvage and distribution -- and was also on the lookout for potential retail-warehouse partnerships. 

Young urban adults, ages 17 to 22, comprise the largest group of unemployed and under-employed in the U.S. This is no surprise, and has probably been the case since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution -- most certainly since we started tracking unemployment statistics. The reasons are fairly clear. Every year, hundreds of thousands of graduating high school seniors enter the job market with minimal life skills and limited job training. These young people must vie with experienced and skilled individuals already in the workforce. How do they compete? One way is by costing less. But while wages are important, they are only one part of the hiring equation. Timing, integrity, enthusiasm and character also matter. 

What does this have to do with green collar jobs? 

Many readers have asked me to explain why more people don't know about the services offered by TRP and other profit and nonprofit organizations that promote building materials reuse. If I were a conspiracy freak (which I'm not), I'd say "they" (politicos, pundits) simply don't want people to know.

Case in point: The venerable news magazine The Economist recently devoted an entire 116-page issue to "A Special Report on Waste." The report is composed of eight separate articles on municipal solid waste or MSW. A chart accompanying the first article shows that construction and demolition debris (C&D) comprises 36 percent of all MSW. Other contributors include mining and quarrying at 28 percent, commercial at 13, household at 11, industrial at 10, and agriculture and sewage at 1 each (The Economist, Feb 28). These figures are consistent with other studies I've seen. 

Only one sentence discusses reuse, and it refers to the practice of wearing hand-me-down clothing. C&D represents the largest percentage of MSW and yet the authors don't even mention the reuse of building materials, an economic and environmental practice that was going on for thousands of years before the EPA was dreamed of or green became a building standard! The issue devotes a photo and several paragraphs to rag pickers in Mumbai, many paragraphs to recycling components from computers and automobiles, and many more pages to a review of recycling initiatives requiring extremely large infusions of capital. Ok, out of three -- reduce, recycle, reuse -- they cover two, but what the heck happened to reuse?

Opening Chicago's ReBuilding Exchange

In 2007, TRP responded to encouragement from both contractors and homeowners by opening a branch office in Illinois to recruit, qualify and train for-profit deconstruction contractors in the greater Chicago area. That office has been so successful, thanks the efforts of Regional Manager Ken Ortiz, that we've needed to open a retail warehouse one year earlier than anticipated.