Once again, Monterey is in the movies. But instead of Marilyn Monroe, it’s starring Trader Joe’s– or, more specifically, the salvaged materials used to build the retail shopping center on Munras Avenue.

In the new documentary Cash for Trash: The Case for Deconstruction, local builder Jordan Daniels of Daniels & House Construction Company describes how he salvaged materials from the old Safeway building and re-used them in the new complex– without going over budget.

The 32-minute film features Monterey city officials, including City Manager Fred Meurer and Planner Bill Reichmuth, and Monterey Regional Waste Management District employees.

The project earned a “silver” certification through U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design program, making it the first LEED-certified shopping center in California.

Salvaging building materials hasn’t been popular since the Depression, but Daniels is hoping for a comeback. “It makes a lot of sense in terms of efficiency and environmental concerns,” he says. “Now we are realizing that deconstruction combined with reuse makes economic sense as well.”

But when Daniels first pitched the idea of going green, the developer was unenthusiastic.

“I’m not really an environmentalist,” Foothill Partners President Douglas Wiele says. “I never even thought about LEED certification because in my industry in 2005, nobody was doing it.”

Wiele had an inflexible budget, so the project manager worked out the details line by line. “The pleasant surprise was, we got there without breaking the fiscal discipline that we had set out with,” Wiele says.

The builders incurred no dumping fees and were paid for recycling 96 percent of the construction waste. They completed the project on time and $10,000 under budget, re-using 80 percent of the lumber from the demolished building– and changing Wiele’s attitude toward reconstruction.

“For somebody to say ‘I can’t afford to go green,’” he says, “well, why not?”

Daniels will present the film at the GreenBuild conference Nov. 19-21 in Boston. View film online at www.deconstructionDVD.org.