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Deconstruction contractor says targeted policies and ordinances create jobs and market demand
Summary
Dave Bennett, a deconstruction contractor with decades of experience, described how deconstruction generates substantially more labor hours than demolition, cited Portland’s ordinance and New York City’s circular construction program as job creators, and urged coordinated contractor training and infrastructure to match workforce growth.
Dave Bennett, a deconstruction contractor who said he has deconstructed more than 5,000 job sites over three decades, told the MassDEP webinar that deconstruction can generate substantial employment and reuse supply when paired with policy support.
Bennett said a side‑by‑side comparison of 10 structures showed deconstruction required about 20 times more labor hours than demolition, producing more jobs while the revenues from salvage and reuse helped offset those labor costs. He pointed to Portland’s deconstruction ordinance as a model that created at least about 100 industry jobs and said New York City’s circular construction program is scaling rapidly: “we are dealing with, the what I think is the largest workforce training green collar job training program in the United States. It is 400,000 green collar jobs that New York City wants to create,” he said, and described an early Manhattan project requiring deconstruction of a large building in a dense urban setting.
Bennett urged communities to train contractors first so there will be employers ready to hire trainees, and to grow infrastructure (warehousing, resale markets, and processing) at a rate that matches workforce expansion. He also framed ordinances as a tool that can establish milestones and a staged timeline for rolling out deconstruction requirements to avoid overwhelming local capacity.
Bennett’s remarks were practice‑based; he drew on project experience and ordinance examples rather than formal academic studies. The presentation emphasized that policy design and market development must proceed alongside training if deconstruction is to scale.
