Between the emerald ash borer, landfill-bound wood waste, and mill rejects, a whole lot of timber egst overlooked or discarded. Enter Recycle Ann Arbor, which teamed with the nonprofit Southeast Michigan Resource Conservation and Development Council and the Genesee Conservation District to develop a one-of-kind organization to turn wood waste into a usable resource.
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"The project grew out of a happy accident in 2005 when Recycle Ann Arbor was looking to put some new flooring in one of their conference rooms and sought out a sustainable option. They had heard some local sawmills were creating products from ash trees, and the Southeast Michigan RC&D Council put them in touch with those producers, Simons explained. Eventually, people began asking about the new flooring, which led Recycle Ann Arbor to sell a small amount of the urban wood in their reuse center. Out of those small beginnings, Urbanwood has grown into a project that involves half a dozen sawmills and two retail outlets, one at Recycle Ann Arbor's ReUse Center and the other at a Habitat for Humanity ReStore in Flint, Mich."
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