Sustainability advocates are looking into ways to manage, recycle and otherwise minimize Construction and Demolition waste.
Approximately 25% of Arizona’s total waste stream comes from C&D. That national rate is much worse, hovering around 40%.
About 90% of C&D waste is generated from demolition. Advocates are pushing to develop implementation of methods that move usable materials back into the production stream instead of landfilling them and are reaching out to generate buy-in from owners, builders and the design community.
The US Green Building Council estimates that the built environment accounts for 40% of raw materials use, approximately three billion tons per year. Only a third of C&D waste is recycled, even though as much as 75% of materials, furnishings and fixtures have the potential for reuse.
One method was exemplified in the recent upgrade of the Saguaro Hotel in Scottsdale. The company donated the FFE it wanted out to Stardust, a non-profit deconstruction service that operates retail reuse centers for surplus and used building materials. The hotel did not have to pay for cart off and got a tax write-off for its donation, which kept several tons of what would have been waste material from going to landfills.
Supporters of deconstruction versus demolition say the circular approach to materials recovery stimulates local economies as well as provides environmental benefits.
In the traditional linear approach, an item would be built, used for its functional lifespan, removed and discarded. Under a circular model, that same item would be built, used, removed, repurposed or refurbished and resold, adding to the number of revenue-generating steps in its life.
Advocates list several overall benefits for deconstruction and reuse, including:
- Offsetting remodeling and renovation costs via tax deduction for used materials donation,
- Reducing landfill impacts,
- Preserving materials of historical significance,
- Reducing resource strain by requiring less new material manufacturing,
- Improving material affordability, and
- Reducing disposal costs. (Source)