As I reflect and absorb the images and stories of the devastation caused by Hurricane Helene and Hurricane Milton, my heart goes out to those who have lost loved ones and the communities facing the long road to recovery and rebuilding. The impact of such disasters lingers for years. The first responders to aid those in medical need and the first to clean up and restore these communities are heroes alike. In moments like these, I am reminded that we are all neighbors, united in our shared responsibility to help one another.
Helene and now, Milton, are stark reminders that the devastation we witness on the news is not distant but part of our collective experience. I urge us to remain connected to these stories long after they fade from headlines. By keeping these events and the communities they impact top mind, we can better prepare for what comes next and work together to mitigate future harm.
Climate Resilient Infrastructure: Building a More Sustainable Future
During Climate Week NYC this year, I had the privilege of being invited to speak with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) during a hosted event: Climate Resilient Infrastructure: Building a More Sustainable Future. Together, we spoke about the needs of communities to safely, quickly, and effectively plan and manage disaster debris using technology, and the importance of leveraging local circular economies – especially in these situations of frequent and intense climate crises, our new normal.
What I didn’t know at that time is that our friends, colleagues, and loved ones in the Southeast were ~72 hours away from a historic disaster. Now, in the rebuild, restore, and clean up phase from the destruction Hurricane Helene caused, debris management has rightly become a hot topic that – unfortunately, but not unexpectedly – is getting more national media attention as our nation launches recovery efforts from the aftermath of the mighty Hurricane Helene and its biblical devastation on the U.S. South and Southeast.
I want to examine the elements of a strong disaster debris management plan through a circular economic lens how software and platforms can improve upon these systems. It’s no secret that our government is now responding to more intense disasters than at any point in our history. The needs for communities to safely and effectively manage disaster debris is increasingly important.
But what if we can go above and beyond our typical response? What if, in the wake of these recent these recent disasters, the response is met with sustainable innovation and ingenuity, frugality, and perhaps with learnings indicating how we can evolve and shape our communities for a more resilient future?
1. Effective debris management planning can be a lesson in community sustainability
Disaster debris management is one of the most significant expenses for governments responding to disasters, with FEMA reimbursing $10 billion over the past five years. Early reports on Helene expect $15 billion to $26 billion in property damage, with the total damage and economic loss between $95 billion and $110 billion.
It’s easy to see why disaster debris is such a big chunk of the cost. There’s the cost associated with separating debris that may be contaminated in the impacted areas, plus the handling of debris at disposal facilities. Then there’s the daunting task of handling significant volume. Tens of thousands or millions of cubic yards of C&D waste and material suddenly dumped into impacted communities (when Katrina hit, 118 million cubic yards of debris were scattered across 93,000 miles), and the answers to these questions must be quick: do we collect and separate, reuse, repurpose, recycle, shred or incinerate? Can this be in execution before residents return back, so it’s not a health hazard? A hurricane of this scale is like a mass disposal event, where damaged C&D debris and hazardous waste intermix, but there are also tons and tons of usable materials. It’s human nature to conclude that everything flooded is completely destroyed, so thus we must start new.
This is not just a mistake and an unsustainable path forward, but it’s a missed opportunity. This past August, FEMA launched the National Resilience Guidance (NRG) program. The goal of the program is to harden our communities in preparation for and response to future climate catastrophes. The vision is that “all people and communities can participate, thrive, and reach their full potential” in the wake of these events. Infrastructure systems must be robust, secure, adaptable, and look to integrate nature-based solutions.
It’s difficult to use words like “missed opportunity” in such a devastating time. But the reality is that the collective response to a disaster isn’t just about handling the environmental damage. That ship has sailed. The focus must shift to fairness, efficiency, and future resilience. It’s about preventing further harm to people who have already lost so much, and executing on opportunities that remain to strengthen local solid waste management infrastructure. Resource and debris management must be done with care and represents an opportunity to be innovative and strengthen the local community. For example, these are some of the organizations providing supplies and assistance in North Carolina, especially Western North Carolina, once thought to be insulated from hurricane flooding. Just imagine if we can 100x the number of these organizations, simply by unlocking the materials that are already available, can be salvaged, or are perhaps locked in storage in our places of work. What if the strain on these small businesses and nonprofits wasn’t so great in times of need? This is the hallmark of a disaster debris plan that uses circularity principles.
2. Local circular economies can slash reconstruction reimbursement costs, boost resilience and innovation
Not including the most recent disaster from Hurricane Helene, since 2021 the U.S. has experienced an average of 22 $1 billion disasters each year.
We must think of ways to salvage waste and reuse materials through proper planning before a disaster strikes to reduce these burdensome costs. When locations are designated as new staging areas for disaster debris handling, the search for public-private partners that can divert still-valuable materials and build back sustainably must happen quickly. This is made worse when you think about the immediate need for supplies in impacted areas.
A circular economy plan represents a more proactive strategy to get supply and demand on the same page for recycling and reusing disaster debris ahead of the disaster. Circular economy resilience is referred to as the ability of a system, organization, or community to withstand and recover effectively from natural disaster impact while minimizing waste and maximizing resource efficiency.
As an example, building deconstruction (the dismantling of buildings for salvage) can minimize the impact of hurricanes on communities simply by moving away from demolition. We all have stories and remember watching the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, but many might not recall when Mercy Corps, the humanitarian aid organization, began a deconstruction program to salvage building materials from 275,000 destroyed homes. Mercy Corps funded 100% of the cost of deconstruction (averaging $12,000 per home) for owners seeking an alternative to demolition. Crews identified 77 tons of potentially recoverable material of which the deconstruction team pulled 44 tons.
A disaster of this magnitude is an opportunity to not just build back to previous conditions, but to do everything we can to make sure we’re ready for one of those 22 $1 billion disasters. That means turning disaster debris into commodities beneficial to society. That means selecting low-carbon alternatives (there’s nothing more low-carbon than salvageable materials). As an example, FEMA has partnered with Building Transparency, a nonprofit dedicated to sustainability in construction and the creator of the Embodied Carbon in Construction Calculator (EC3), a tool that provides a free and easy way to quickly identify low-carbon materials that qualify for FEMA projects. In some cases, lower carbon materials are cheaper than their conventional equivalent, and some FEMA applicants are now authorized to utilize low-carbon materials like concrete, asphalt, glass or steel for eligible recovery and hazard mitigation projects.
3. Technology can help communities plan ahead, connect and create circular outcomes
With the proper technology in place, debris planners, removal contractors, deconstruction providers, nonprofits and businesses, and many more can bring forth a unified approach to debris material management by connecting with each other before a disaster occurs. This ultimately reduces the strain on existing landfill facilities and the costs for purchasing new materials during reconstruction. I’ve been very vocal about the need for a 4th principle in the circular economy: connect the global value chain.
It’s one thing to talk about the public, private, and academic partners who are working on nature-based solutions, net-zero energy projects, energy efficiency efforts, the use of salvaged materials, and how each of these fits into a nationwide resilience strategy. It’s another thing to put all the moving parts into motion when disaster strikes.
How can we make sure that we’re recycling as much of the debris streams as we can without understanding who the key players are, their location, and availability, in real-time? How can we segregate the debris that are not hazardous and reuse those in communities, in real time? These are the goals we should have when it comes to circularity outcomes for all materials – not just building materials.
At Rheaply, we’ve seen this movie before. In 2020, “reopening” the City of Chicago in the wake of Covid-19 was a top priority for city officials and business owners alike. With personal protection and sanitation resources limited, my company Rheaply launched the Chicago PPE Market, providing businesses with a marketplace for businesses to request and share PPE and sanitation materials, with 4,604 transactions and 100s of thousands of exchanged PPE material from 2245 verified Chicago-based organizations happening in real-time. Breweries in Chicago, who were selling alcoholic beverages one day and sanitizers the next, became an unlikely supplier of materials for essential workers in a circular ecosystem. Without technology, the organizational matchmaking wouldn’t have existed.
Part of disaster planning and preparation is making sure we know what type of resources we have, what type of resources we are lacking, and what we’re going to require or need after a disaster occurs. Without technology, we limit ourselves and what we’re capable of.
The City of Chicago PPE Market was one circular success story, in one U.S. city. Are we ready to localize the supply chain for PPE if another pandemic hits us?
And with this analogy in place, are we ready to stage another disaster recovery site with resilience and circularity as our guiding principles?
