SEATTLE (Recycling Monster): The Iowa City Public Works Department’s initiative to recycle bricks from the Pedestrian Mall won the Iowa Recycling Association’s Project of the Year Award. The project has so far recycled over 120,000 pounds of bricks. The brick recycling program has helped the City keep materials out of landfill.

ALSO READ:

City of Dallas to Offer Post-Election Sign Recycling

Greene County Recycling Center Announced Permanent Closure

The project was carried out in partnership with the Iowa Valley Habitat for Humanity ReStore, whose volunteers palletized the brick piles in the town's southside for more than 160 hours during the summers of 2023 and 2024. Later, the organization's ReStore, situated at 2401 Scott Blvd., sold these palletized bricks. More than 100 pallets, valued at around $10,600, were produced. Bricks can be purchased by the pallet or separately for 50 cents each.

Thorin Peugh, the director of the ReStore noted that the collaboration was received well by the community. There are around eight pallets of brick left, which is expected to be sold quickly, Peugh added.

Winning an award for the project was an honor, according to Jennifer Jordan, the city's resource management superintendent. The city has previously been the recipient of this honor. In the early 2000s, the city's Rummage in the Ramp initiative earned it the Project of the Year Award.