Transcript:

When a building gets knocked down, its wooden boards and beams typically get destroyed, too. In the U.S., tens of millions of tons of lumber end up in landfills or incinerators each year.

But Eric Law of the company Urban Machine says much of this wood could be reused instead.

Law: “It’s a massive amount of material that’s still high-quality material. It’s still completely intact, it’s still got good length to it.”

Before it can be reused though, all the nails, screws, and staples must be removed.

Law: “And that process is incredibly labor-intensive.”

So Law’s company created a robotic machine that’s now in use near San Francisco. It locates metal fasteners in pieces of lumber and extracts them using pincers. It can process thousands of feet of material each day.

He says making it more efficient to reuse lumber could pay off for builders and the climate.

Trees absorb and store carbon. When they’re used for lumber, much of the carbon remains locked away in the wood. But if the wood decays in a landfill or is burned, it releases climate-warming pollution.

Reusing lumber helps limit that pollution. And, it means fewer new trees need to be cut down. So it could reduce the construction industry’s impact on the climate.

Reporting credit: Sarah Kennedy / ChavoBart Digital Media