Most Wake County residents are recyclers. Why not? It’s easy. Deposit newspapers, cereal boxes, soda bottles and milk jugs into handy green bin. Take to curb. Retrieve bin when empty.

But while all this responsible recycling by consumers is admirable, it would be great if other types of recycling were as routine. Many types of construction and demolition waste can also be recycled, yet a significant portion of these materials are just discarded.

A recent project to take down several apartment buildings in downtown Cary shows that large-scale recycling is possible and not that difficult.

Working together, Global Earthworks and Habitat for Humanity salvaged more than 10 tons of material. That’s a lot of little green bins.

Global Earthworks was charged with demolishing the apartments at 320 S. Walker St. to make way for a new town park. The company went into the deal knowing they were going to do a certain amount of salvage, but after Vice President Paul Parker saw the hardwood flooring in the units, his plans expanded.

“It’s quicker to take everything to a landfill,” Parker said. But “I knew that [calling Habitat] was the right thing to do.”

Joel Lubell, deconstruction manager for Habitat, said although his team was originally called in to take the flooring, the framing lumber was the real jackpot.

Lubell’s team of professionals and volunteers eventually salvaged about 8,000-10,000 square feet of 1970s-era oak flooring and lots of high-quality lumber from rafters, the second-floor ceiling and the interior walls.

As far as the amount of salvaged wood, Lubell said, “We’re way ahead of where we normally are in October.”

But he added that if he had had more time at the site, he could have salvaged even more wood.

Just a little more time for the demolition process could increase how much debris is diverted from landfills. In a March 2008 Wake County Construction and Demolition Waste Assessment report, the consultants agreed writing: “Implementing wait-time requirements after obtaining permit but prior to allowing demolition action could help foster deconstruction activities.”

An easy way to add in that time, Lubell suggested, would be a fast-track permitting process for a demolition that included salvage. But both Lubell and Parker agreed that local governments can and should offer more incentives for companies to deconstruct instead of demolish.

These types of large-scale recycling projects help everyone. They should be encouraged and supported by the public and by local governments.

This may be the first time the Town of Cary, Global Earthworks and Habitat have worked on a deconstruction project, but let’s hope that there are many more to come.

Contact Amber Keister at 460-2610 or akeister@nando.com.