Jay Sanderson is the founder of Backroads Reclamation and a national leader in developing circular infrastructure for Canada’s built environment. With over 20 years of experience in heavy transport, logistics, and materials handling—including roles at Halliburton, Mammoet, Bantrel and ConocoPhillips—Jay brings a systems-driven, operations-first lens to solving complex waste and recovery challenges.
In 2020, as COVID slowed industrial projects and shifted priorities across the country, Jay turned to hands-on work to stay active—dismantling a family barn that was slated to be burned. What began as a practical project quickly became a professional turning point. Board by board, he saw what was about to be lost: old-growth lumber with decades of life left. That experience exposed a national blind spot: Canada is demolishing thousands of buildings annually—each full of recoverable wood and materials—with no scalable system to preserve them.
Jay founded Backroads to change that. His company is developing the missing business infrastructure to make reclaimed lumber viable at scale: from grading standards and certified deconstruction crews to processing systems and market-aligned supply chains. His goal is to make reuse predictable, profitable, and integrated into the way cities grow.
Jay brings operational insight to advance material recovery, circular supply chains, and long-term industry resilience.
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