How to recycle an old U.S. military base
HTML-код
- Опубликовано: 27 июн 2024
- Construction is incredibly resource-intensive and emissions-heavy, but we can’t just stop building things. Thankfully, there are mountains of construction material sitting under our noses in old buildings. How can we use old materials to make new construction greener?
#planeta #urbanmining #construction
We're destroying our environment at an alarming rate. But it doesn't need to be this way. Our new channel Planet A explores the shift towards an eco-friendly world - and challenges our ideas about what dealing with climate change means. We look at the big and the small: What we can do and how the system needs to change. Every Friday we'll take a truly global look at how to get us out of this mess.
Follow Planet A on TikTok: www.tiktok.com/@dw_planeta?la...
Credits:
Reporter: Dave Braneck
Camera: Marco Borowski
Video Editor: Frederik Willmann
Supervising Editor: Malte Rohwer-Kahlmann, Kiyo Dörrer
Factcheck: Alexander Paquet
Thumbnail: Em Chabridon
Read More:
Metabolic on urban mining: www.metabolic.nl/news/urban-m...
Drees and Sommer (EPEA) on Heidelberg project: www.dreso.com/de/en/company/p...
Chapters:
0:00 Intro
0:54 Rebuilding Heidelberg
3:21 Construction’s big waste problem
5:01 Striking gold in the city
7:21 Not as simple as it sounds
8:44 Making urban mining the norm
Are there any urban mining projects happening on where you live?
It can house all the illegal immigrates the eu are sending and have sent to the uk, but won't take back because we are not in the eu, but they still send them!
What a shame. 80 years on and DE is still occupied.
I’m an urban miner in Nigeria! The practice extends beyond just circular construction, and includes generally seeking out resource banks in urban areas. I’m currently working on scouting important molecules for the chemical industry, from waste material. Needless to say, I love my job.
Awesome!
There's a company here that recycles whole buildings and has their own yard where they then on sell it. Only seen wooden structures done as there's a lot of tough native wood that can be reused and its not a large company but I'm still stoked with the efforts and quality of what's sold on
That just a demolition yard. Many countries have these. Great for period renovations and cheap second hand stuff. My bedroom wood heater come from a since demolished house. They essentially disassemble everything with a wrecking bar and keep the good stuff in the yard while the rotten timber is taken to landfill/incinerator.
Imagine, in the future, for every house build, there is also a data base for that house which contains all the materials used. So, as soon as it will be deconstructed, nobody needs to examine anything, because the database already exists. It would make the urban mining project much faster.
Hmm, I like a good database, but what happens when the home owner replaces a toilet, light fixture or appliance when it dies. Will they be required to update the database? This may be necessary for accuracy.
as people renovate about a piece of their house every 10 years, it would be very very hard. also privacy
what a stupid government is germany. I apy here 1500 eur rent. people are homeless millions of houses are missing and they demolished these apartments
Cool idea but too idealistic for our reality. The privacy nightmare that could pose isn't worth it.
@@beskamir5977 maybe not for the easily movable parts, but for the house itself? I still see people having to test for asbestos before demolishing anything.
but then, renovating every 10 years (aside from maybe repainting or a new fridge) seems absolutely wild to me and the family homes I usually see
Urban mining is very common in the townships and shanty towns in South Africa.
I used to live on a Canadian base in Lahr in the 80s- it looked very similar to the one in the video and the buildings were well-built. I believe it was refurbished and remained as housing. There were so many bases across Germany until the end of the Cold War. Many fond memories!
In poorer areas of the southern states in the US I've seen this a lot but very informally. People will basically raid sites that are being taken down for whatever they can use as well as any leftover material from newer construction. It's common practice to set your leftovers on the curb even in more well off neighborhoods once your project is done. A number of people in construction have told me their company policy is to just throw extras away because it's too complicated to use them for a different project from a billing perspective.
Putting materials on the curb is a great idea. It's an intuitive message that the items are free to take. This saves on dumping fees, so it really is a win-win. If there isn't enough room, then the company could ask neighbours to lend space near the curb.
Much needed approach for Germany that doesn't like to demolish old buildings for the sake of environment. I hope this becomes mainstream tech and we don't have to hear neighbors walking or flushing their toilets as if there is a cardboard between us or know when they turn on their heater, since their pipes are running through our units.
Re-use is much more important than recycling. All of these units should simply be occupied with families and shops. And it being illegal to reuse the windows is ridiculous.
Saving energy and emissions is the main goal. When it is more efficient to replace they will. It saves in the long run is not so ridiculous.
Use the windows for greenhouses!
@@jimbucket2996 Ok. If it's cheaper then free people should be free to choose the newer window. Don't make it illegal.
The old windows can be recycled into new windows, the glass and metal or wooden frames are very much recyclable materials, where older windows may not seal as well as they used to if reused like a new one would.
This is an interesting question, especially for Eastern Europe, because there are many buildings of the Soviet era whose service life has expired, and there are also buildings destroyed by war and these are hundreds of tons of resources that should not become garbage.
Reusing old materials (upcycling) CAN be a good idea, but might not make economic (or even environmental sense).
Old electric equipment is obvious no-go, mainly for safety reasons (talk to any firemen how often they swap electrical hardware).
I just finished stripping a porch my friend had to get rid of to expand his home. I spent longer stripping the materials than he spent tearing it down. (15+ hours). Only around 40% of screws are reusable, and if I compare time spent vs. buying brand new the mainly 2x6'' treated construction timber I scored it's a complete waste of time. Might aswell work couple hours overtime and buy brand new.
But I'm still gonna reuse 100 year old roofing tiles on new roofing over my entrance door / porch😊
Old windows are inferior and often a point of failure (there is a reason many have to change them in old homes).
Trying to upcycle "everything" is silly.
They did not necessarily mean reuse the windows as they are but rather the materials constituting those windows.
Old windows can be refurbished and when they are, they are often better than the stuff currently being sold.
Over time we will gradually discover ways to do it more efficiently. This is a pilot project...
Love this project and happy to be a part of it through our Madaster material cadastre that enables to make these reuse and recycling processes a way more efficient.
A very big project to manage ,and glad to hear that many years of thought gone into it .
Greetings from England 🏴 Simon and Beth ❤❤❤
This is the beginning of the Money Free Economy, A resource-based economy. As humanity evolves this will naturally fall into place. It's a new Zeitgeist!
Bring back bartering!
20-30 years ago I worked on large construction projects demolishing old concrete building like shopping centers or factory's. They were large enough that it was profitable to bring in portable crushers to turn the old concrete into recycled sub base for onsite and other building projects. The steel rebar was sold to metal recyclers. Asphalt roads are regularly broken down by grinders and taken to be used in new asphalt production. In my State in the USA, it is cheaper to recycle it than put in landfills.
What state though?
Those 8"x8" floor tiles are probably asbestos. A lot of mitigation work before anything can be done. I like that they're keeping some of the buildings.
i dont think there that old are they ?
@jermainec2462 Asbestos was being used when these buildings were built. Asbestos was used until 1989.
@@jermainec2462 Yes, they are unfortunately.
@@cory8837no, Its banned in Germany since 1993, So they would have to vacate if azbestos Tiles not removed ...
I actually was loving the raw data being provided, i didnt think it was dry at all this is cool new tech enabling us to reuse buildings like they are old fashioned jointed timber built
I mean to be honest, I kind of think those housing is kind of cute. Anyways, I mean I like the way they're set up. And an angle like that.
I mean I would change the facade. Maybe like adding some brick or some stone or something in order to break up the concrete look of it. Maybe some balconies?
I mean I'm not too familiar with Germany's culture whether they like balconies or not.
There's tons of US military bases all over the world and including in the US that have been abandoned. It would be great to refurbish them. It's quite sad to see no one living in them. It seems like a post-apocalyptic world.
This is the kind of urbanism that I want to see more of not tearing down buildings but refurbishing old buildings and reusing the material.
A lot of people talk about preserving, but there are other ways to preserve buildings other than just preserving a standing building recycling. The material of the building is a way of preserving and honoring its presents.
That was my home for three years as a child. I have memories of going into the small thrift shop and seeing the floor markings showing that it was the previous bowling alley.
My brother's scouts meetings mainly were in the middle school, whose cafeteria displayed a number of historical flag designs from the American Revolution. Catholics had Sunday school in the elementary school, and then we'd walk to the church. The cross would be rotated from the Protestant side to the Catholic side and then we'd have our service.
I was a kid and I was allowed to go all over the place. I would occasionally go to the library by myself. And when I finally got my dog tags, I could run to the store and buy what my mom needed while making dinner. So many memories in the place. 😢
Hey Nick! Wow, that is crazy - thanks for sharing your memories with us here 😊 Did you know that they are working on this project?
I accidentally dropped my figure of Hefty Smurf (jogging in his running outfit) down a vent in a group of seats at the new bowling alley. (It was '87 or '88.)
Man I should do this kind of work for a job I love taking things apart 😂
Yeah this looks like a fun creative challenge! You’re given various limited materials and have to construct a home with it. I like the concept.
Most of the buildings on this base were in fact built by Germans using German materials and local codes. American Engineers simply awarded contracts to different firms and insured that they were built to contract terms. While I was there in the 1980’s much that was of inferior or antiquated design was in fact torn down and replaced with the best available materials and built by Germans (Boiler plants, fuel storage). Before departure for the final time many items were replaced with new items or repaired for future German use. Then the sites sat empty for a decade plus.
Good idea to reuse materials and parts of the demolished buildings.
But renovating/reusing all buildings would be better.
I think the main reason why only 1/3 of the buildings are reused is that new build houses/buildings sell better and they can fit more buildings on the same area (sell more apartments etc.)
I’ve seen that many times. Old Buildings are demolished and then new ones with more space are build.
The biggest improvement would be to not let these buildings sit dormant for so long. Without care they start to deteriate fast. The roofs start leaking and ceilings fall then mold starts growing. I would see about shipping appliances, windows and other items to poorer countries. The windows may not be the best for Germany or even that energy efficient anywhere but they are better than no windows.
I love the idea of urban mining, amazing
Living in a college town in California one has a great selection of furniture and electronics available at the end of each semester. Just walk down the street with your eyes open. ;)
Students put everything at the curb. Lots of IKEA especially, but also last year's television, stereo and computer.
I thought this video would be about keeping the buildings and renovating them for a new purpose.
Great idea but no mention of hazardous materials like asbestos.
I was thinking just that
Asbestos isn't hazardous unless you're working with it, it's not like lead based paint where you have to worry about some kids getting naturally selected. Asbestos was banned in Germany in 1993 but since it's a US military base we banned Asbestos use in 1975 except when properly sealed in cement, etc. A Hospital I worked at STILL uses Asbestos in it's new constructions because it's sealed behind a layer of cement or something that is cement like.
Unless you're doing the renovation it's a non-issue, if you are, you will be required to wear safety gear.
Hey Mark! When they document and check all material, they also check for hazardous materials such as asbestos. In some buildings, there was also asbestos and they need to investigate what to do with it.
Absolutely brilliant. Loved the building passport, listing and taking note of all the materials that could be available from a building, should it be demolished in the future. 👏🏻
I used to live there in the mid 1980's. I really liked living there as a kid.
I like the idea of reusing old materials for new buildings. Also, I wonder if some of those ghost towns can be torn down for planting trees there and other plants to reintroduce more biodiversity.
meanwhile people pay 1500€ rent for garbage apartment in Germany
Lots of PFAS issues on many bases with fire fighting practices .
"Use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without."
This is fantastic!!!
Hey there! Glad to hear that you liked our video. We post videos like this one every Friday ✨
What a way to find out there's urban mining happening in my area! Greeting from Heidelberg :D This is so cool, how didn't I know this?
Thanks for this video.
Hey there! Happy to hear that you liked our video. We post videos like this one every Friday. Subscribe to not miss any and let us know what you think ✨
Sounds like some of the regulations should change. That bit about the solar panels was unfortunate. It's good that requirements for solar panel efficiency have kept pace with improvements in technology, but perhaps those should only apply to new panels. Those used panels are perfectly good and could be used for a different home or something.
Reduce, Reuse, *then* Recycle.
Exactly this, who does it benefit to destroy panels that work? It's not like it's an old 2 stroke engine that emits harmful pollution just by using it, it's the making, then the destruction of the solar panels that produce pollution, so we might as well use them until they stop working.
I lived in carbon copies of those Patrick Henry Village apartments in Ben Franklin Village outside of Mannheim. Some of our little league games were in Heidelberg, I recall playing marbles after a game at PHV. Those kids were good; I lost my marbles - or at least a few of them.
Reuse is better than recycling.
Seems like it would be a lot less complicated to just fix up the buildings that are there. They look solid.
This is the future
hopefully men dont carry as many purses as these guy do
I think it’s a shame how so much useful material & utilities just get dumped in skips when people fancy a new bathroom or kitchen. Meanwhile we’ve a housing shortage & people still living with their parents in their 40s.
Unfortunately, one can't assume all buildings on old US bases are capable of rehabilitation. Many of these were never intended to be "permanent" structures. Often, they were built very quickly with little expert direction, poor (and sometimes hazardous) materials, and then they were not necessarily well-maintained afterwards. Thus, we can't just slap new paint on the walls and move people in. We do have to be painstaking with the inspections and inventories, and THEN deconstruct and rebuild for the long-term.
In Estonia they tried the same for former Soviet bases. But the Soviet garrison living quarters did not have even rudimentary heating systems.
Faszinierendes Thema.........
Most places also like to renovate existing structures but one of the main issues here is that these buildings have too much square feet for Germans so they want to obviously go through some really cutting edge changes basically to hide that fact.
While it's sad to see something change and disappear that was so much part of your life that's the cycle of life and it has to happen.
If it's anything like they did at Campbells barracks I'm sure that they'll make the roads wonky and very difficult to travel on and I'm sure the buildings will be made much smaller to fit the requirements of the German population
why not just use the building as is?
Suuuuuuper!
Don’t ask what’s hiding in the underground beneath these lands… I am from there you don’t wanna know ..
Nice report. If we treated all architecture as historic, protected or listed, we'd have to be more careful about their restoration or re-use. Buildings used be built for the long term. We now throw up buildings designed for 30 years. And, can we please go back to decorating our buildings?
They should sell those flats as Roh Bau and save a lot of money and labour!
All of those Roh Bau apartments will be sold in less than one month!
I hope they use passive housing techniques.
Stuff like fridges and insulation are a tough one. Fridge could be full of expanding foam. Manufactured 'wood' like chipboard. So interesting to see what they come up with. Many non masonry forms of cladding could present an issue too. Asbestos in the buildings?
American fridges use fiberglass or foam board not expanding foam. The idea of something so unshapely as expanding foam is alien I have never heard of anyone using it in a fridge.
Insulation if it's fiberglass can easily be recycled, foam less easily can be destroyed in a kiln.
Hey Paul! There was also asbestos found in some buildings and they had to investigate whether these buildings can still be used or not.
eliminating options of virgin materials will force builders into using more of the same materials in construction. That will make it easier to reuse the materials, as there will be fewer type to deal with. IE all houses preindustrial, were just wood. No tile, no plaster board, Wooden walls, wooden doors, wooden shingles. Very easy to reuse those materials in other houses. While fire laws may have stopped that, other types of materials, think 3d printed concrete homes could do about the same.
i have that exact fridge and stove
Does it run well?
Now that I hear a name for it, I realise I ( as an artist) have being doing it to some extent for years,
In British Columbia Canada many developers are giving away houses for free, all you have to do is move the house to your own lot.
The problem in BC is that the land value is everything- you will need several million $ to purchase even a sliver of land to put that house on, even if the house is given away for free. 😢 but it is a good way to save heritage homes that were well- built. ❤ A lot of newer homes are just being torn down (so wasteful) to make room for new development.
@@justinefafard2355 Isn't BC relatively choice land up in Canada? My understanding is most things are insanely expensive compared to the US (Must be the free healthcare lmao sorry can't resist I'm jealous so I gotta rip on you), but Nunavut is super cheap especially when you go up north right? Why not move there, build a massive series of greenhouses for not frozen space that's useful and live knowing you'll never need an AC? lol.
But I'm an American and it gets hot where I live in the spring-fall, winter /late fall are my favorite seasons. I hope inflation gets better and land becomes more affordable but as our populations keep growing I don't see it.
keep the fridges and stoves in the houses that silly to get rid of them
Gr8 video Gr8 concept except 1 error: the single glazed windows can be reused in situ 1 of 2 ways. The conductive metal covered with an insulating material then double or triple glazed windows added out board as has been done in Netherlands & Sweden, or disassembled & rebuilt by glazers on site into new double or triple glaze wibdows a la US President's Carter Plan.
I was watching this video and started laughing because here in the US the native people have been doing this for centuries. I just got back a week ago from tearing down, not demolishing, an entire sub division of about 30 homes. They had been declared abandoned for about 3 years. Out of 30 homes we will be able to almost completely build about 20 homes. Reducing the cost of each home by 60%. That equates to a $150,000 home costing only about $60,000 times 20 homes = $1,200,000 and a savings of $1,800,000. Which means we save more than we spend. Who, in their right mind, would reject that?
As they said in the video it's been done in Europe well before the Industrial Revolution - if you look at old churches you'll often find pieces of Roman stone as Roman buildings were "mined" for materials.
You'll be selling them for $60,000?
That completely contradicts what I keep hearing about the US housing industry
I am not doubting what you wrote. But, I have never heard such a "tear down" project being done in the states.
You want to share with us where this "tear down" occured?
@@OffGridInvestor We are not the housing industry. We do not do this for money. Our people live in some of the most repressed areas of the country. The houses we build for our people would not be possible without the teardowns we do.
cost - an inconvenient truth
fascinating! I wonder why more cities don't illegalise demolition as a way of reducing embodied carbon in developments
I was outside of Hanau
Reuse ,reduce ,sustainable ideas already exist in India from centuries..newer generation forgot
Wait, this all looks fine, why even deconstruct it?!
They must do the same with old government vehicles all that tyres and everything
It used to be called tomb robbery or vandalism.
Why not renovate all of them?
what a waste they let it rot and not just given away
Do a video of naturist How environmentally friendly
Retrofit for public housing?
Hey there! In the project visited in the video, the focus is on creating affordable housing and the plan was to have 30% social housing.
Let's Recycle The Planet, Enact The Venus Project
Thank you.👍
Thanks for watching! 🌱 You can also subscribe to our channel and you won't miss any of the upcoming videos. We post weekly. 🌞
Where would all those hot dog stands go?
Germans love a sausage right? Put them all over Germany. Hotdog is just a crappy sausage, so sale sausages to the germans instead; if they like hotdogs then they can just keep them as originally used.
My problem with Military bases is that they look like Commie Blocks.
Urban mining might sound like a great idea but wait till they find out how poorly constructed U.S. military bases are done 😂
The future is recycle ♻️
All is possible right now but is all about the first investments 😢
Camp Lejeune.
I'll buy the white stove if they want to ship it for free to the US...lol
If imagine Japan pretend as American I think it's nothing wrong in just talking like truly liking American Army about Defence-Joining.
Just now I was looking at Palladium At Johor(heard the actual name is different "Johor" as Something Else), I imagine life in a Battle that is too few Support(Quantity).
If think of Heroic Common Sense, "to go home"(is to protect too), what would create teaming up with me? What's harsh is living the next day with them Alive or action of Injuring-move like knowing their death is nice in life. Nobody likes to be known by enemy "of not knowing something" or gave them chances to explain or describe Situation into "they being lovely instead", didn't they think I am a Robot(a material, an item)? It is already enough as evidence the boundary will be nice.
I’m currently renovating my garden, I’ve dug it all up and I’ve found old cobble road bricks, red bricks and paving slabs and I’ve reused them for a path and retaining wall, I’ve also found metals, lots of glass and plastic which I’m going to recycle, it has saved me money but it takes time
A group of virginians got together before the american revolution, and were debating how to organize themselves given England wanted them to be colonies and pay colony taxes. The man who this was named after stood up and said "Give me liberty or give me death". The USA has income taxes, death taxes, sales taxes, property taxes, payroll taxes, gas taxes, capital gains taxes, to the point that more than 50% of USA income is spent on taxes. Clearly the USA has lost the understanding of "give me liberty or give me death". Germany should keep this place under the name patrick henry, and go help Ukraine fight for their independence from Russia.
That is the way, great video
Hey there! Thanks for watching, glad you liked our video. ✨ we post new videos every Friday. Subscribe to not miss any 😊
Go home Ami, Ami go home!
I have always been used the building materials I already have at my sites. Maybe because I am poorer than Germens..😁 This is an ordinary bullshit, that reused materials are more expensive than the new ones. The issue is in overbudget of the collecting and sorting part of the reusing process.
It has to be either expensive or subsidized. Even time is valuable, and costly. If only we lived in a perfect world. Renewable energy, we don't need heating and air conditioning, people truly give a shit. Yeah sure. Well, do your best. Everyone likes the word green, even though Green most commonly isn't very green. Luck for us there's a local hardware store around the conner. And, we can pretend it's GREEN.
Germany needs 1 million apartment every year and they demolish this apartments 😢. i cannot find house to live i pay 1500-2000 euro rent!!!!
I thought that too - but you've no idea from the report what proportion of the buildings you saw were barrack blocks versus married quarters. It may be that the internal layout of the blocks prevented re-use for civilian rentals - after all the designers would still need to comply with German construction laws and fire regulations. And they said that the new development would be higher density than the old base - so you've no idea of how many new flats / houses they plan to stuff into the area versus the number of people they could house if they converted everything.
@@user-fm6ns5nb4j ja ja ja . after several decade. typical lies. It takes several century to build new thing in shitmany. I regret to come here everything is very expensive
What about EV mining? Its a good time to start thinking what to do with all of the tons of toxic e-waste left after the used batteries
Wiw
🇩🇪👍
Nightmare
Germany could ask the US government to repatriate all the US appliances and pay for the redevelopment of the base, since they're the ones who built it and then left it behind.
> "Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins; you will restore the age-old foundations; you will be called Repairer of the Breach, Restorer of the Streets of Dwelling." -- Isaiah 58:12
Give it to the homeless and then lock them in.... escape from la
Another empty feel good clip from German government propaganda. There’s a reason urban mining isn’t done, it’s cost prohibitive. Hiring all the manual laborers to carefully take every component apart of infeasible as human labor in the west is very expensive. Germany isn’t India.
German taxpayer will pay! 🖖😉
Won't there be huge demand in Ukraine? Especially for something like windows and doors that are more expensive than furniture. Storage isn't cheap, I know, and I don't want be a cheap skate for Ukraine but I guess that demand will be huge and people won't have enough of their own money to buy new parts for their homes.
Why is carbon bad? Plants love it.
Instead of spending efforts, money and carbon dioxide in such peanuts, people must concentrate on removing coal power plants. It will solve all the greenhouse problem.
Eliminating coal electric generation is a high priority, but there is no silver bullet. We need lots of little innovations like this to build a brighter future.
@@aspiringhomesteader636 Exactly. Positing that removing coal will solve all greenhouse problems is a serious exaggeration. It makes up 40% of global greenhouse gas emissions so it's likely the single most important greenhouse gas emitter that we need to tackle, indeed, but by now we have emitted so much of it that we need to go way, waaaaaay beyond 40% to reach anything other than a cataclysm. We are (still) emitting greenhouse gasses at a rate that is multiple times that which likely caused a mass extinction of 76% of all known species around 200 million years ago in the Triassic period. That said, it would of course already be a tremendous achievement if we could phase out coal, it just wouldn't solve all problems, far from it. More than that, a large part of the coming problems have become unavoidable. The only outcomes still within the realm of reachable range from serious problems up to cataclysmic ones. To reach the lower end of that spectrum we need to fully engage in tackling all emission sources, from huge to small and like you say that will take lots of little innovations and inventions in all sorts of different areas
It’s not just that. Making new buildings from scratch requires a lot of materials that simply do not grow on trees but have to be mined and then transformed (e.g. making cement and concrete) and the whole process is completely unsustainable and emits a lot of GHGs.
You Are about 12 years Late to make that comment.
"Urban mining" is the new name for the old "recycling" "re purposing" rhat has always happen from cutting a tree and making wood studs, plywood, oar and houses to re using animal skins and cuconut husks and all types of metals .and stones ... "urban mining" happens everyday and everywhere people live. ,. Thanks for sharing ; )