One-stop shops where people can go to find salvaged building materials in the name of circularity are popping up around the U.S.
In San Antonio, the Material Innovation Center (MIC) works with contractors, reuse stores, and corporate donors to take in excess woodwork, windows, lumber, siding and other materials after buildings get demolished. This debris gets channeled toward affordable housing, all thanks to MIC. Another outfit, Reuse Innovation Center, is based in Bellingham, Washington, and services the Pacific Northwest.
To boost its own circular economy, New York City is following suit. Dave Bennink of the Circular Construction Network and Building Deconstruction Institute shared plans this week to build the New York City Reuse Innovation Center (NYC-RIC), what Bennink says will become a “center of circular construction.”
NYC-RIC will be located in Brooklyn, Bennink said, but the group is still looking for space. It will contain a “reusable building material store, a showroom, classroom, and a collaborative maker/remanufacturing space called the CoLab,” he said. Bennink is actively looking for businesses who’d like to move into the space and synergistically work “towards circularity in the built environment.”
Dave Bennink of the Circular Construction Network and Building Deconstruction Institute shared plans this week to build the New York City Re
