Photo by Milivoj Kuhar on Unsplash

In the Belgian town of Leuven, squads of “urban miners” pick through condemned buildings to ensure that any loads of lumber, bricks, tiles, or stones that may have a second life elsewhere are given that chance.

Trucked off to the “Materialenbank,” they await a buyer willing to give these salvaged materials a new home.

Leuven isn’t the frontier though, and a combination of strict building codes and energy efficiency standards mean the materials have to be up to the standards of a modern European economy that wants to be carbon-neutral by 2050.

In some cases, that’s fine—and little more than a coat of paint or lacquer is needed to prepare the material for resale. In other cases though, the urban miners at the Materialenbank will downgrade a material’s importance. A steel girder will lose its role holding up second floors to merely holding up the roof, while tiles that may have lined the roof will make their way to the basement flooring.

It’s all part of Materialenbank’s commitment to recycling. At the moment the firm is picking through a pair of homes that make up a group of 30 prewar houses and garages near the city’s train station it believes it will be “mining” in the next few years.

These 30 buildings were condemned for demolition in order to open up an additional traffic route to ease congestion and find room for a green space. Materialenbank will arrive with their tools, an expert will give the house a once-over, and then workers will commence picking out the best of what can be reused before carting it off to an airplane hanger-like space it owns on the outskirts of town.

There, all the materials are sorted, restored to whatever state is needed, and sold. A workshop also welcomes entrepreneurs and artisans who want to use the materials to make new products.

The Guardian reports that a group of housing flats close to the city’s De Bruul Park come with beds, kitchen cupboards, and flooring all made from recycled wood; just one example of how businesses and builders in the city are taking up the challenge set down by the local government of keeping whatever comes into the city, in the city.

GREAT RECYCLING STORIES: The UK’s Royal Mint is Now Extracting Gold From Electronic Waste

GNN reported on the work of a Georgia nonprofit doing a very similar thing, and how their sales of salvaged wood thrived during the pandemic when government-enforced business closures meant that new lumber from Canada couldn’t be imported into the US for builders.

Re:purpose Savannah is a 501(c)3 that takes old, condemned buildings apart for their bricks, timber, door frames, metalwork, and other components and sells them to construction firms building new homes for discerning clients. They’ve taken apart beach houses, dairies, bungalows, cottages, and traditional homes in town.

MORE SALVAGE EFFORTS: Veterinarian’s Simple Question Inspires Wave of Donations of IV Fluids That Would Normally Be Thrown Away

Furthermore, much of the wood that Re:purpose pulls down comes from trees no longer used for lumber because they are endangered, or because there are better options for mass timber planting.

These include white and red oak, longleaf pine, sweetgum, walnut, and hickory. Longleaf pine in particular is a very high-quality wood with a tensile strength that’s higher than steel.

SHARE This Great Story Of Urban Recycling With Your Friends On Social Media…