Although the new Selma High School is up and functioning, some of the old school’s material lives on.

For the past seven weeks, excess construction material has been sent to an empty space off Highway 80 to be recycled into usable material, like limestone and scrap metal, and these recycled materials will then be resold.

Ray Mathiews, director of operations for Selma City Schools, said once the Selma High School project was bid out, HOAR Construction Company received any excess building materials that the school didn’t want, like bricks, copper pipes, wood floors and several other materials.

“What they’re actually recycling is the building materials from the school,” Mathiews said. “They’re recycling bricks and I’m sure all the metal and all the copper, anything that can be reused is definitely being recycled.”

Rodney Ready, on-site operator for the project, said the majority of material that has been sent over has been concrete, which workers have been converting into limestone.

Mathiews also said most of the materials used for recycling were “fixed,” meaning they were used as permanent features in the building.

This material will be resold in Selma and to anyone else who is interested in purchasing it, Ready said.

“The reason you would do that on a project this size is,” Mathiews said of the project, “is that the demolition contractors reduced their price to demolish the building, knowing they were going to have the salvage rights to those items.”

Many workers can be seen off U.S. Highway 80 organizing scrap material and stacking recycled bricks.

Ready said he wasn’t sure how much longer the project will last.