Recycling on Steroids?

The second of our two environmental posts today has to do with what the City requires, or in B'game's case, what the City doesn't require of the scrapers who teardown houses in town.  Some cities have requirements that a certain percentage of the demolished material from a major remodel or a teardown gets recycled, preferably by another direct user.  I recently got a set of French doors off of Craigslist.  They were in Palo Alto and while picking them up from a homeowner doing a major remodel, I also signed a city form stating that I was taking the doors (that weighed about x pounds) for my project.  Other cities require salvage companies to be alerted and offered first crack before the claw arrives.  Seems like a great idea and likely to have more positive impact than many of the so-called green initiatives that are so popular today.  Here is a local teardown that is just happening and a shot of some very cool windows that don't appear to be headed for reuse (not the broken panes).  This would seem to be simple and effective.