In 1989, the City of New York enacted its first comprehensive recycling law, commonly known as Local Law 19. The stone and steel from the old Willis Avenue Bridge is being recycled as part of this initiative.
Today, we spend more than $300 million each year to dispose of our garbage outside of the City, but according to a study by the New York City Independent Budget Office, it costs more for the city to collect and dispose of each ton of recycling than each ton of garbage. (CBS Interactive)
Specialized glass, metal and plastic recycling costs New York $240 per ton, almost double what it costs to just throw it away. (ABC News)
Still, in the spirit of doing the right thing 3,200 cubic yards of granite salvaged from the demolished Willis Avenue Bridge is being reused in the PIER One salt marsh, part of the EmpireFultonFerry project in Brooklyn.
Matthew Urbanski, lead designer for the landscape architecture firm Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates, created the master plan and had this to say about the recycling:
MU: “...we also used the old stone from the Willis Avenue Bridge, which the DOT is renovating We got a call one day from someone at the department asking if we wanted the stone block from the columns, and I said "Sure!" Then they asked what we were going to do with it, and I said, "I have no idea..." [laughs]….
“The Willis stones were huge monolithic blocks. So we used them throughout the park to create... terraces that look out over the constructed salt marsh. They create hulking, rough retaining walls and terraces, and then they become a material motif throughout the park.”
Interviewer: “The stone is beautiful. You can still see the iron stains and discolorations from its earlier life.”
MU: Yes. But one point to emphasize is that it's extremely hard to use recycled material. The material is cheaper to buy, but the effort required to repurpose it is significant. On our end, the work to get the stone, take stock of it, measure it and then mesh our design intent with the dimensions and quantities of the existing material — this was demanding. So was the labor of the masons — cutting the stone and grinding it down.”
“I can't say that the recycled material was a cheaper solution; but it is beautiful, and it is environmentally responsible to reuse what exists. And it reweaves some of the historical threads of the city, in a subtle way.”
Brooklyn Pier photos courtesy of thedesignobserver.com