Lily Barriball
Bricks taken from the Pedestrian Mall in Downtown Iowa City are sold at the Habitat for Humanity ReStore in Iowa City on Friday, Nov. 8, 2024. Iowa City’s Public Works staff won the Iowa Recycling Association Project of the Year Award for repurposing bricks that were taken from the Pedestrian Mall in Downtown Iowa City. The bricks that were not repurposed can be bought at the Habitat for Humanity ReStore.
The Iowa City Public Works Department was recently awarded for a project that recycled over 120,000 pounds of bricks from the Pedestrian Mall. On Oct. 18, the department received the Iowa Recycling Association’s Project of the Year Award, according to a release from the city.
Over the last 10 years, bricks have been removed from the Pedestrian Mall so the city could resurface the area. These bricks sat in a pile in the southside of town with the intent to eventually find something to do with them, the release states.
As the brick stockpile grew, more and more people called the city to ask if they could use some of the bricks for their own projects, Jennifer Jordan, the city’s resource management superintendent, said.
This is where the idea for the brick recycling project started, Jordan said. However, the city knew it did not have the capacity to distribute the bricks out to the community by itself, she said, so the city began looking for local organizations that could help.
Eventually, the city asked the Iowa Valley Habitat for Humanity ReStore to help gather the bricks onto pallets to be sold at the organization’s store, located at 2401 Scott Blvd.
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