Last week’s start of demolition of old houses and businesses to make way for Capitol Hill light rail station construction got a lot of attention — we got Boing Boinged, for one — and also caused some concern.

Here is a question we got in the comments about why the old houses weren’t salvaged:

I’m curious why the houses weren’t deconstructed for salvage and recycling. It appears there was still a lot of good material in them such as wood flooring, dimensional lumber, and architectural elements such as columns and trim. A significant portion of the structures could have been recycled if demo’d in a more thoughtful manor. It’s a shame that we are sending these resources to a landfill.

We asked spokesperson Jeff Munnoch from Sound Transit the same thing. Here’s what he wrote:

First, Sound Transit contracted through the City of Seattle with a network of local salvage companies to remove building interior materials from several of the vacant buildings such as doors, fixtures, lighting, and appliances that can be reused.

Next, Sound Transit made several of the houses on the site available for purchase and removal. The agency has a contract with a house-moving company, which advertised the houses for sale. Individuals could purchase the vacant homes through the house-moving company, and they would have handled all the arrangements for moving it to the buyer’s site.  Unfortunately, no one expressed an interested in moving any of the buildings

Sound Transit also worked to identify opportunities for neighborhood residents to salvage existing plants on the site for replanting.  Sound Transit hosted a community plant salvage event in the fall of ‘08.  A handful of community members participated in the event and relocated plants from the site to their homes.

Finally, Sound Transit has set a goal that 75 percent of the on-site material will be salvaged, reused or recycled by the demolition contractor, rather than sent to a landfill.  As the demolition work takes place, building materials that can be re-used or recycled, such as concrete, are separated from the waste materials and take to an appropriate recycling facility.

By the way, if you have more questions like this, Jeff is a regular attendee at the monthly Capitol Hill Commnity Council meetings. The council meets every third Thursday of the month — this Thursday is the next session at 7p in the Cal Anderson Shelter House.