It’s been said that the greenest house is the one that’s already built, yet we send thousands of them to the landfill every year in Metro Vancouver. It’s indicative of our tremendously wasteful culture.
Local non-profit Light House estimates about a fifth of homes being leveled would be good candidates for relocation to rural communities where they are both needed and wanted, and the vast majority of demolished houses have resources in them that can be repurposed for new builds.
We could be saving millions of tonnes of garbage from the dump and saving millions of tonnes of carbon from the atmosphere associated with the production of construction materials. But the process to save these resources from oblivion is far more difficult to navigate than it is to simply destroy them.
Typically, older homes are only picked up and moved when someone wants to save them for their heritage value, and materials are only salvaged by discerning contractors. This must change.
Critics may point out that new regulations and complicated house relocation policies won’t making building new housing any faster or cheaper. That’s why it’s incumbent on local governments and the province to rise to the occasion and start clearing the way for these projects, literally and figuratively, and to start facilitating ways for the construction industry to make this the norm.
These old homes are goldmines. And a mine is a terrible thing to waste.
What are your thoughts? Send us a letter via email by clicking here or post a comment below.
