Deconstruction jobs – not just for literary theorists

A job training program in south Seattle is giving 130 people a ticket out of poverty with skills in the growing field of deconstruction or the carefully dismantling homes and buildings to preserve reusable materials.

The practice often recycles more than 70 percent of demolition materials that would go into landfills.

“A properly trained deconstruction worker knows how to disassemble a building in the correct order, using the appropriate tools, with minimal damage to building materials,” says, the Workforce Development Council of Seattle-King County.

The council has received a $141,000 federal grant for the GreenLight Project to train 130 economically disadvantage people. Fifty people have already completed the training and are finding jobs that pay $10 to $25 an hour.

On the Web:

• Here's an earlier KPLU story on the deconstruction trade.