King County, Washington, reduces waste generated from building demolition

A new training program offered by King County, Washington, is helping the local construction industry transition from demolition to deconstruction, a modern approach that decreases the amount of material that ends up in the regional landfill.

Unlike traditional demolition which relies on heavy machinery to turn buildings into piles of mixed debris, deconstruction carefully dismantles structures so materials can be salvaged and put back into the economy or, in some cases, completely rebuilt or relocated. The approach taught by King County can reduce the amount of valuable material that ends up in a landfill by up to 90 percent.

Reducing waste generated by construction and demolition advances Re+, a county initiative to reinvent the region’s waste system to cut greenhouse gas emissions by transitioning to a sustainable circular economy.

“The most effective climate actions deliver far-reaching benefits, and that’s exactly what our new deconstruction training program is achieving,” King County Executive Dow Constantine said. “We’re helping the local construction industry shift to a more sustainable model—one that reduces landfill waste, lowers carbon emissions, and creates equitable opportunities in the green economy.”

Nearly 1 million tons of construction and demolition materials end up in landfills every year, according to the state Department of Ecology.

Fixtures such as cabinets, windows and doors, as well as larger structural elements such as stairs, roof trusses and exterior walls have high value and can often be reused. Other materials that might not be reusable can be recycled, such as drywall, metal and scrap wood.

“Our goal is to divert up to 90 percent of those materials that still have value toward reuse or recycling, to save room in landfills for what really needs to be there,” says Kinley Deller, construction and demolition program manager at King County’s Solid Waste Division. “Deconstruction is one of the ways we plan to reach that goal.”

The goal of Re+—led by the Department of Natural Resources and Parks’ Solid Waste Division—is to divert 70 percent of all the material currently brought to Cedar Hills Regional Landfill in Maple Valley to be reused, recycled or composted rather than buried as waste. 

To help the industry transition to the deconstruction model, King County’s Solid Waste Division developed a training program to build a more experienced workforce. The training, led by Dave Bennink, founder of the Building Deconstruction Institute, builds hands-on knowledge of methods.

“We teach students not just how to remove things, but also how to do it in a way that protects value so those items can be reused,” Bennink says.

Promoting equitable access to the green economy

The training program offers more than just a crash course in deconstruction. Informed by an environmental literacy and job training program called Roots of Success, King County’s program provides education in other green career fields, including sustainable building, energy and wastewater treatment. The training also provides job skills, such as resume and cover letter writing and interview prep.

King County is working with community-based organizations Community Passageways, Hope for Homies and the Freedom Project to offer the training program to people who have been previously incarcerated. The training offers opportunities to build a career in a green job field to individuals facing systemic barriers to employment.

“We have a lot of young people in our community who need more skills and need more opportunity to use those skills,” Community Passageways founder Dominique Davis says. “Our goal at Community Passageways is to connect people to this training and get them plugged into real careers.”