Building 45 Demolition Project Demonstrates MIT Leadership in Reducing Landfill Disposal

Photo taken at the Media Lab during demolition of E10 and E20 in 2001. Source separation of demolition debris allowed for 96% recycling rate, which MIT hopes to surpass during the demolition of Building 45.

While the non-descript Building 45 is gone from MIT’s campus, demolished to make room for the new Brain and Cognitive Sciences building, little of the building ended up in the state’s overstuffed landfills, thanks to environmentally responsible steps taken by the EHS Office and the Department of Facilities. Instead, nearly all of the building and its contents – including thousands of tons of concrete, metal, wood, and furnishings – were recovered for reuse or recycled. The project is part of MIT’s comprehensive program to extend the Institute’s research and teaching leadership role on the environment to its own operations.

In 2001 MIT formed the Green Building Task Force (GBTF) under the leadership of cosponsors Jamie Lewis Keith, Managing Director of Environmental Programs and Risk Management/Senior Counsel and Chief Facilities Officer Victoria V. Sirianni. Among the goals of the GBTF was to ensure that MIT’s massive building program, which is transforming the look of the campus, incorporated state of the art practices to “green” MIT’s work. Part of what resulted was a list of ten broad environmental goals, as well as recognition that recycling construction and demolition (C&D) debris would have a major positive impact. An outgrowth of these goals was the development and implementation of stringent specifications for recycling C&D debris, which have since become the standard used by the Department of Facilities in all capital projects.

Mixed metals (shown in picture), wood, asphalt, brick, concrete, and many other materials were separated and recycled during the demolition of building 45.

“MIT’s adoption of these specifications, and our success in implementing them, places MIT squarely on the leading edge of progress in this area,” according to James T. Curtis of the EHS Office, primary author of the specifications and C&D debris expert. According to Curtis, the Building 45 project was as successful as the razing of E10 and E20 in 2001.

That project, the first to be carried out using the C&D debris recycling and reuse specifications, was conducted to make way for the upcoming Media Lab expansion. The result was an astounding 96 percent recycling rate, with 4,519 tons of materials recycled and only 193 tons landfilled. The Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) has featured this project as one of six “success stories,” garnering MIT positive accolades and setting a high target for others in the region. DEP recently announced their intention to ban C&D debris from landfills (PDF) as part of their larger effort to conserve dwindling capacity.

Building 45 during demolition. Source separation of demolition debris allowed for almost all of the materials generated during demolition to be recycled.

The Building 45 project, led by Department of Facilities Project Manager Arne Abramson, used the same demolition contractor (W.K. MacNamara of Waltham) that conducted the Media Lab work. The structure was emptied of its contents, with much of the office furniture donated to the MIT Furniture Exchange. Once deconstruction began, the wood, metal, concrete, and other materials were removed one by one to facilitate recycling.

The upcoming of the East Garage (part of the Stata Center project) also included a focus on recycling. Facilities estimates that 600 tons of scrap iron and 6,500 tons of concrete – virtually 100% of the structure – were recycled.