<!--Michele Deluca--><table width="234" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" background="http://static.cnhi.zope.net/flashpromo/niagaragazette/images/byline_234x60.jpg" height="60"><tr><td><div align="center"><font size="3" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">By Michele Deluca</font><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><br /></font><font size="1" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><a href="mailto:michele.deluca@niagara-gazette.com">michele.deluca@niagara-gazette.com</a></font></div></td></tr></table>
Sometimes you have to learn things the hard way.
That’s why two men from Niagara Falls joined efforts to carefully deconstruct a home in Buffalo last week so they could bring the environmentally friendly demolition techniques back home to their city.
Watching the pair cutting and separating parts of the roof as it lay in the backyard, it’s clear it would have been a lot easier to throw all the remnants of the single family home into a local landfill.
But, in the aftermath of Wednesday’s global Earth Day celebrations it appears more and more citizens believe in the old saying, waste not, want not.
That’s the point behind the efforts of Marcelo Lopez and Ian Tanner of Niagara Falls who are attempting to follow in the successful “green” footprints of a two-year-old non-profit on the East Side of Buffalo called Buffalo Re-Use.
“The plan is to finish getting the overall idea of how they work at Buffalo ReUse and implement that in Niagara Falls as well,” said Lopez.
Buffalo ReUse, which started as an all volunteer effort and now employs more than 10 people, has successfully dismantled over 25 structures in the city, diverted tons of material from landfills and resold thousands of building supplies back to the community at a low cost.
Lopez and Tanner, both with backgrounds in construction, are members of a newly formed and as yet unnamed men’s group in Niagara Falls that has been formed to help the youth in the city. As such, the pair also hope to learn about Buffalo ReUse attempts to train and employ out-of-school youths from the surrounding community.
“Employment, that’s my goal,” said Tanner. “Not just for myself but for other people.”
“It helps the community in the long run,” Lopez added.
Buffalo ReUse, along with PUSH Buffalo, recently obtained a federal grant of $645,000 to expand its efforts to enhance neighborhoods through the acquisition, rehab or demolition of blighted properties on Buffalo’s East and West sides.
The Buffalo nonprofit also runs a resale center called the ReSource at 298 Northampton St. on the city’s East Side, selling everything from doorknobs and window frames to old bricks and ceiling joists. All the products in the store have been donated or taken from deconstructed homes.
Consumers interested in learning more can see how products from the ReUse Center were used by landscape artist Joy Kuebler to create the garden of the Junior League Decorator’s Show House opening Saturday and running through May 17 in Amherst.
The ReUse Center is also holding an “Earth Warming Party and Open House,” from noon to 4 p.m. on Saturday.
In the meantime, Tanner and Lopez will continue learning about “green demolition,” and both agree the knowledge and potential is worth the effort.
“It’s not so much that it’s harder (to deconstruct),” Lopez said. “You try to see ways of not destroying the material. It’s a different way of looking at the project.”
