Resource Work Cooperative recently completed a major deconstruction and recycling project in Hobart. 98% of all materials from the demolition of a large warehouse and former whaler’s cottage were saved from ending up as landfill. Most of these materials will be used later this year in the building of a new School’s Together Sustainability Centre in Mount Nelson.

 Resource on site

Instead of adopting a traditional destructive approach to demolition, reliant on heavy machinery and few workers, the buildings were dismantled by hand. This process of deconstruction, although slower, created 12 jobs over the 3-month project while allowing the processing and reuse of an enormous volume and variety of materials.

As a small snapshot of what was saved, this included:

- 15,000 convict era bricks (to be reused at the Port Arthur Convict Farm)

- a further 100+ tons of red solid bricks

- over 4000 linear metres of hardwood

- over 900 linear metres of softwood

- a complete 1840s timber staircase, as well as a 5 metre steel staircase

- over 300m of steel I-beams

- heritage pit sawn timbers and floorboards, as well as hand picked sandstone

- fittings including toilets, sinks, lights, plugs, telephones, etc.

- 400 kilograms of copper wiring & 150 kilos of lead were recycled

- Over 170m2 floorboards

- Over 600m2 roof tin

- even coins from 1826 & 1827 

Resource, based its approach on the “Waste Hierarchy” (reduce, reuse, recycle), concentrating on reusing materials first. However, where this was not possible materials were recycled (i.e. copper from electrical wiring, broken bricks as road base and leftover timbers i.e. due to rot as compost).

Resource Work Cooperative worked in collaboration with Morrison & Breytenbach Architects, the Department of Education and the Department of Housing to achieve exemplary environmental outcomes. 

For more info contact, Project Coordinator  This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it