Of all the waste produced in Hawai'i, 35% is construction and demolition waste, but much of that is recyclable.
Punahou school is renovating and found a way reuse parts of its gym to help reduce some of that waste.


The 28-year old Hemmeter Fieldhouse at Punahou school is getting a face lift. But it's not out with the old, in with the new, it's be careful with the old, because it'll be someone else's new.

"There's 20,000 square feet of maple, gym floor, tongue in groove, beautiful material and we've been here for about two weeks, maximizing salvage probably 98 percent of the flooring we're saving," said Re-Use Hawaii Founder Quinn Vittum.

It wasn't just the planks, crews also saved what's called the sleeper sub-floor, douglas fir and the bleacher boards. All of the work done by the non-profit Re-Use Hawai'i, which is a state licensed demolition contractor.

"Sometimes it takes a little bit longer to do deconstruction for obvious reasons because it's a more methodical process but we're finding that with the strategies that we implement with our deconstruction program we're able to be competitive with demolition," said Vittum.

The salvaged wood is taken to Re-Use's Kaka'ako retail yard, where it's prepared and sold for re-use.

"People that are reusing the maple flooring are green builders, contractors and do it yourself homeowner type people," said Vittum. "Lots of people want to use salvaged material because it's environmentally friendly also they're probably gonna save a lot of money as compared to buying new material."

Vittum says the wood salvaged from the gym represents nearly 113 trees and nearly 29,000 cubic feet of material diverted from a landfill. By the way, the new gym has energy-efficient lighting as well.

For more information on deconstruction or purchasing the salvaged materials click here.