When I look at the new Fred & Pamela Buffett Cancer Center construction site, it’s hard to believe that used to be Swanson Hall.
Last year, before deconstruction happened, LiveGreen wondered where demolished buildings went. We are happy to report that buildings on campus are largely recycled.
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LIVEGREEN |
by Melanie Stewart |
Here’s how it works: metal, sections of roof, concrete and so on, are separated on site and then transported to recycling facilities. We were excited to learn that our campus wasn’t just depositing an entire building in the landfill. But how the heck do you recycle concrete?
Well, technically you don’t. You repurpose it.
Concrete is crushed into rock and then used as bedrock in new road construction. Not only does rock not have to be mined for the purpose, but tons of concrete are diverted from the landfill.
So how much did we divert? From Swanson Hall, 18,500 tons of concrete were repurposed and 235 tons of steel were recycled!
While we’re at it, remember Lot 4, the parking garage on the southeast corner of 42nd and Emilie? Almost all of it was recycled, as it was almost all concrete and metal: 11,680 tons of concrete and 260 tons of steel.
Just down the street were the old grounds building, storage building and Pauli’s. Their demolition resulted in 330 tons of concrete for repurposing.
All in all, that’s 30,510 tons of concrete and 495 tons of steel for a grand total of 31,005 tons of material diverted from the landfill. So how much is 31,000 tons? It’s the equivalent of three Eiffel Towers!
Impressive as that is, we didn’t stop there. Swanson had a lot of great green space around it, with some fantastic trees. LiveGreen advocated to save as many as possible. The grounds crew transplanted almost all of the smaller trees in spots around campus that needed them.
The most notable is the Pawpaw tree now located by the Student Life Center. This tree has a symbiotic relationship with the Zebra Swallowtail butterfly, so keep your eyes open.
Many large trees were unable to be transplanted. However, all of the Linden trees that bordered the parking garage were carefully cut and the large trunks were saved for local furniture maker Andrew Colley. Once they are dried and made into something beautiful, we’ll let you know.
It's really nice to hear about this recycling and about preserving the trees where possible. I know Charlie Andrews (past chancellor) said one of the things he hated having done on campus was to remove a large tree (Poynter area, I think) which he got a lot of flack for. Even before the recycling setups we tried to save things. Can't imagine 30,000 TONS of concrete.
Carol Kolar
I wonder where the bunnies went? We had several that used to actually stand up and look into our windows in our office in Swanson Hall.
It's wonderful to hear how my 'old home' was recycled into something useful again. On a personal note, the grounds crew was kind enough to plant the Pawpaw tree right outside my window in the SLC so I not only have a great tree to look at, I can reminisce about the building that was home for 29 years.