As many fight for an increasingly eco-friendly future, Recyclean, Inc.—which encourages people to think past the dumpster—becomes increasingly important. Joshua White, a partner at Recyclean, seeks to educate people on what Recyclean does so that instead of assuming traditional demolition is the only option and destroying a beautiful 19th century home, people know that with Recyclean, they have the option to deconstruct properties and then donate and repurpose those materials.
“I just can't imagine people don't appreciate the environmental value, the philanthropy, and the beauty behind trying to repurpose structures that are slated for demolition,” White said. “Everybody knows somebody engaging in some type of project that requires demolition, whether it's a renovation of an old barn coming down or a house demolition to build a new mansion. Building awareness around this as an option is something that I just want to help educate people on.”
Of course, this eco-friendly alternative to traditional demolition is more involved since it saves materials rather than destroying them, and that takes manpower. The deconstruction process entails reverse-engineering the original construction project; rather than building from the bottom up, they deconstruct from the top down. This disassembling of properties requires more work by hand than the traditional demolition process, and Recyclean would not be able to do this without its dedicated, attentive, and passionate team.
“We have a phenomenal team. We're running anywhere from five to seven different crews,” White said. “Those crews have the ability to merge and separate as needed depending on what type of projects we have. Each of those crews has a crew lead, and those crew leads have been with us for a long time and are very educated in our standard operating procedures from both a safety and an operational execution standpoint. By doing that and really continuing to improve our model, our landfill diversion rate continues to improve, and as we get larger our economies of scale improve.”
These crews have been around for a long time and have on-the-job experience that simply cannot be learned from a textbook. These knowledgeable crews do not keep their expertise to themselves, however, as they aim to educate customers as they work. With larger recognition of the reuse community, Recyclean’s crews are able to save and educate even more.
“Strong leaders like Jair Rosales have worked with me since before the inception of Recyclean over a decade ago,” said Founder Mike Goffman. “Very few people have more hands-on experience in deconstruction which is vital to leading and training the next generation of crew leaders,”
“It is not only our execution staff with unique deconstruction experience, but our sales staff is anchored by long-time educators like Michael Laidley, who joined the Recyclean team shortly after the company was created, bringing more than a decade of experience in the waste removal industry and helping people understand the environmental, financial, and philanthropic benefits of deconstruction,” Goffman continued.
Goffman also shouted out his best childhood friends, Sub Team Leader Gene Stokes and Superintendent George Catuscelli, for the expertise they implement into of their projects. Stokes has decades of experience with mechanics and carpentry in the construction industry and uses that experience to determine the best way to deconstruct similar structures. Catuscelli used to work as a commercial industrial electrician, so he knows how to teach team members to look out for hazards and keep them safe.
To learn more about the team that makes deconstruction possible, visit Recyclean, Inc.’s website at https://recyclean.net/about-us/.
