Waste management at the construction site isn’t a new concept, and is in place all over the country. However most of these efforts are voluntary and easy to overlook when landfills keep piling up. It’s estimated that more than 325 million tons of construction and demolition (C&D) waste material is generated in the United States every year. The average home is estimated to produce 2.5 to 4 tons of waste during its construction. This accounts for materials such as lumber, drywall, masonry, cardboard and metals. It’s not rare for all of this to be piled into a single bin and driven to a landfill to be disposed of. Especially when it’s cheaper to do that than separate the materials onsite or go through a recycling authority.
With rating systems like LEED and the National Green Building Standard gaining momentum, more emphasis is placed on waste diversion and management plans. They're both needed if a building is to be certified under these systems. Even the State of California, with its recent adoption of the CalGREEN standard, requires at least 50% waste diversion from the job site. This will reduce the amount of construction waste flowing to landfills and get everyone to think about how to control and reduce waste generation.
The next step will be to enact mandatory waste prevention measures. Some states and localities already require them, and they’ve proven to be effective. Here in the city of Santa Barbara there is a big push for recycling and waste diversion. Some prevention ideas include reusing building materials, using smarter framing, and optimizing building dimensions to standard lumber dimensions. We can design buildings with little to no construction waste in mind. All we have to do is see these plans through and make sure they’re being followed on the project site.
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