Recycle, Salvage and Reuse Building Materials

• Author: Brandon Hanson
• Pages: 96-99

96 Sustainable Development Code: Climate Change

RECY CLE , SALVAGE

AND REU SE BUILD ING

MATERIALS

Brandon Hanson (author)

Jonathan Rosenbloom & Christopher Duerksen (editors)

INTRODUCTION

Every year the construction industr y in the U.S. produces over 160 mil-

lion tons of construction and demolition materials.1 Most of these materials

are sent to landlls, and each year the amount of space needed for land-

lls grows. e landll space needed for this material could be drastically

reduced by salvaging and recycling.2 Many materials, such as brick, wood,

concrete, roong materials, asphalt, a nd metals, can have reuse pur poses and

can be recycled to generate new raw materials.3 Local governments should

enact ordinances that require or encourage a specic minimum percentage

of materials removed from buildings during demolition to be diverted from

a landll by either reuse, recycling, or other ways.

Ordinances addressing construction or demolition should be drafted to

require a minimum percentage of total waste or an amount per square foot

of building space being erected or razed be diverted from landlls. Meeting

diversion rates encourages developers to use more sustainable practices and

to use material that can easily be reused or salvaged before the demolition of

a structure. Local governments can impose monetary sanctions for not com-

plying with the ordinances a nd/or suspend or revoke a developers’ permit to

build. Another way to reach a similar goal, is to require specic materials in

construction and demolition to be recycled or salvaged. e specic materi-

als can be added to a diversion rate ordinance or be enacted separately.

Local governments may also set specic rates or percentages for waste

to be salvaged rather tha n recycled. Alternatively, local governments could

create incentives for de-construction and salvaged materials, as opposed to

demolition. Deconstruction is the process of taking apart existing construc-

tions rather than leveling and separating materials. is ma kes it easier to

salvage, reuse, and recycle materials, leading to greater waste diversion rates

from land lls.4