Many people assume a demolition site is a noisy mess headed for the landfill. Marion County, Oregon, showed otherwise in 1997, and its construction and demolition debris recycling numbers still appear in federal waste reports today. That year, the county demolished seven buildings at the Senator Block in downtown Salem, including a parking garage, retail storefronts, and an apartment building to make way for a new courthouse square and transit station. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the county and Salem Area Transit set a goal of diverting 90 percent of the demolition debris from landfills after researching similar projects elsewhere. What followed became one of the most detailed public records of a demolition site doubling as a recycling operation.
The numbers behind the courthouse square
