BROWN
United States
Environmental Protection
Agency
Lessons Learned in Building Material Reuse
and Recycling in Cleveland
Sustainability Pilot Background
EPA's Brownfields Sustainability Pilots provide technical assistance to assist
communities in achieving greener, more sustainable results when redeveloping
brownfields. These pilots also provide models for other communities across
the country.
EPA provided the City of Cleveland, Ohio with technical assistance to enhance
the city's deconstruction program for brownfields and abandoned buildings. EPA's
technical assistance included evaluating the city's deconstruction program and past
deconstruction projects. The evaluation provided lessons learned and recommended
potential strategies to enhance the city's overall deconstruction initiative and its
capacity to address brownfields effectively.
OHIO
Cleveland Resource Recovery Project Background
Approximately 1,700 abandoned and vacant buildings (many of which are located on brownfields) are currently
marked for demolition in Cleveland. The city's Deconstruction Initiative promotes the recovery of building materials
for reuse and recycling rather than traditional demolition. Due to the number of abandoned and vacant buildings,
demolitions increased from 195 in 2005 to 1,139 in 2008. With this increase, demolition and construction materials
now constitute one of the largest waste streams entering Cleveland area landfills - and local landfill space is
dwindling quickly. Diverting demolition materials through deconstruction—a "soft" demolition technique used to
dismantle buildings and maximize recovery of materials for reuse and recycling—will help conserve existing landfill
space and reduce the need for new landfills.
Project Highlights
EPA's technical assistance to the City of Cleveland included interviewing local stakeholders involved with brownfield
properties. The technical assistance team conducted stakeholder interviews with: city staff in the Office of Sustainability
and Department of Health; representatives from Hard-Hatted Women, a nonprofit workforce development program
for women in trades and technical careers; a representative of Rosby Resource Recycling, a for profit company in the
deconstruction building materials reuse market; deconstruction contractors; and demolition contractors.
The technical assistance team's discussions with stakeholders focused on:
Identifying options for maximizing the recovery and sound environmental management of materials at future
brownfields deconstruction projects
Overcoming regulatory challenges to deconstruction
Integrating deconstruction planning into requests for proposals for brownfields contractors, architects
and developers
Identifying vendors to support demolition and deconstruction in the Cleveland area
EPA's technical assistance team helped the city evaluate its deconstruction program including any past
deconstruction projects. The team also toured several city sites where deconstruction is underway including a site
located in an urban, residential neighborhood. These activities led to: identifying lessons learned specific to the city's
deconstruction program; and developing strategies for addressing the lessons and goals for further enhancement of
the city's deconstruction program. The lessons learned and potential strategies for addressing lessons learned are
organized into five general categories:
Procurement • Portfolio management of brownfields and
• Contract specifications abandoned buildings
• Stakeholder participation ' Reuse building material markets
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Challenges and Lessons Learned
City of Cleveland deconstructing an abandoned building as part of
its Deconstruction Initiative program.
Antiquated Procurement Procedures
The City of Cleveland's procurement procedures were
originally established for conventional construction.
Demolition projects—where disposal of materials in
permitted landfills rather than sorting contaminated
materials from reusable materials—were the norm. EPA's
technical assistance team recommended that the city
develop a construction and demolition (C&D) materials
management plan. The C&D management plan would set
policy and specify goals (including deconstruction goals)
for reducing and reusing building materials for all new
construction, renovation or demolition projects.
Specify Deconstruction in Bid Documents and Contracts
Contractors rely almost exclusively on contract specifications when providing cost estimates for projects. Unless
deconstruction is specified in a bid document, typically contractors do not include deconstruction costs in a
bid. EPA's technical assistance team recommended that the city ensure all contracts, contract templates or bid
specifications are reviewed by the city's Office of Sustainability or Department of Economic Development for
inclusion of deconstruction requirements and removal of language that may discourage deconstruction.
Effective Portfolio Management
Establishing ownership and custodianship of properties is often time consuming and imposes barriers to
immediate actions. In the meantime, abandoned and unsecured buildings can be vandalized and stripped
of valuable materials, reducing the building's value for deconstruction. The technical assistance team
recommended that Cleveland consider other cities' abandoned buildings programs such as Chicago's Fast Track
Abatement ordinance. Through the ordinance, Chicago is authorized to board, repair or demolish (deconstruct)
buildings that are vacant, open or a community hazard without seeking time consuming court orders. Chicago
also maintains a list of pre-qualified "Fast Track" contractors that can mobilize within a day after receiving a
notice to proceed.
The City of Cleveland is evaluating the information provided through EPA's technical assistance. In the short term,
the city hopes to implement site specific strategies with the greatest potential for increasing deconstruction of
abandoned buildings on city brownfields. Long term, the city plans to apply knowledge gained from the pilot and
future deconstruction projects to incorporate deconstruction methods in all aspects of brownfields redevelopment and
in citywide demolition strategies.
Sources for Additional Information
For more information on this project, please see the full Cleveland technical assistance report at:
http://www.epa.gov/brownfields/sustain_plts/factsheets/cleveland.pdf
Regional Contact Information
For more information on the Cleveland Resource Recovery project, please contact:
Deborah Orr
EPA Region 5
312-886-7576
orr.deborah@epa.gov
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