Examination of Factors Influencing the Reduction and Recovery of Waste from Construction and Demolition Projects: Circular Economy Opportunities
Citation:
Richardson, T. Examination of Factors Influencing the Reduction and Recovery of Waste from Construction and Demolition Projects: Circular Economy Opportunities. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, DC, EPA/600/R-23/190, 2023.
Impact/Purpose:
This product will describe for the Regions and Program Office a conceptual framework to facilitate the storage and exchange of construction material. Construction, deconstruction, renovation, demolition, and infrastructure projects provide a significant opportunity to promote the recovery, reuse, and recycling of building and construction materials. This leads to sustainable management of resources, wider adoption of green and sustainable practices within the construction industry, the conservation of landfill space, and a reduction of environmental impacts.
Description:
This product will describe for the Regions and Program Office a conceptual framework to facilitate the storage and exchange of construction material. Construction, deconstruction, renovation, demolition, and infrastructure projects provide a significant opportunity to promote the recovery, reuse, and recycling of building and construction materials. This leads to sustainable management of resources, wider adoption of green and sustainable practices within the construction industry, the conservation of landfill space, and a reduction of environmental impacts. After the building and construction materials have been salvaged, a mechanism that can effectively centralize and streamline the process of categorizing, inventorying, and redistributing the materials is needed to facilitate the transfer of the material for use in a new project. Materials banks or repositories could be used for this purpose industry-wide. They could also provide an opportunity to gather information on the risks and best practices associated with reducing exposure to legacy hazardous materials in the build environment. The goal of this product is to develop and validate a conceptual framework or method that could serve as the basis for a mechanism to facilitate the storage and exchange of construction material (i.e., materials bank) to promote the reduction of waste in the future.