"You're kidding me, construction waste has always been mainstream, except that nobody is actually paying attention...."

I was in a meeting with a fellow USGBC member last August 2009 to discuss recent changes made on LEED Version 3.0.  I told him that it appears that there wasn't a change on the Materials and Resources (MR) credits where waste management is a prime component.  I attended several USGBC lecture series and other university sponsored sustainable development seminars in the past and nobody seems to be putting much emphasis on waste.  These lectures are mostly centered on energy and water issues.  Building performance seems to matter most because its the prime source of the dreaded carbon dioxide emissions.

The way we view waste (or trash in typical lingo) in the construction industry is so much the same as the way we treat them in our day to day lives - once its thrown away, we don't want to see it anymore.  What matter to us is the end product.  So much like carving a perfect diamond from a piece of mined diamond crystal.  Oftentimes, the end product is smaller than where it originally came from.  If we scale it up into a typical house construction, imagine how much waste we generate in the process.  According to the U.S. Building Energy Data Book (Constrtuction Waste, 2007):

• two to seven tons of waste (roughly 4 pounds per square foot) are generated during construction of a single family detached house
• 15 to 70 pounds of hazardous waste are generated during construction.  Hazardous waste include paint, caulk, roofing cements, aerosols, solvents, adhesives, oils and greases
• each year, U.S. builders produce between 30 to 35 million tons of construction, renovation and demolition (C&D) waste.  In 2008, at the peek of the construction boom, McGraw Hill reports that U.S. builders generated a whoping 143.5 million tons of C&D waste - that's almost 5 times the average!
• annual C&D debris accounts for roughly24% of municipal waste stream
• waste include wood (27% of total) and other (73% of total, including cardboard and paper, drywall/plaster, insulation, siding, roofing, metal, concrete, asphalt, masonry, bricks and dirt rubble, waterproofing material and landscaping material)
• as much as 95% of building related construction waste is recyclable and most material are clean and unmixed

Until several days ago, construction waste has always taken the back seat of sustainable building.  Always been part of the LEED credits but never been the primary issue that drives green building practice.  During the Greenbuild 2009, the premier annual green building convention currently being held in Phoenix, Arizona, the McGraw-Hill Companies released their SmartMarket report: Sustainable Construction Waste Management: Creating Value in the Built Environment. The highlight of the report are the following:

• Most contractors place sustainable waste management (61%) and responsible use of materials and resources (57%) as two of the three most important aspects of green building, behind energy efficiency. This importance is expected to increase in five years to 80% and 78%, respectively.
• Waste diversion activity is increasing despite the recession; 20% of firms are diverting half of their construction waste on 60% or more of projects, and 25% of firms expect to do so within the next year.
• The biggest drivers behind sustainable construction waste management practices include client demand (82%) and government regulations (81%). Competitive advantage (77%) and increases in education and awareness (75%) are also cited as major influencing factors.
• Already, 57% of contractors have set sustainability positions and diversion goals, and 43% plan to divert more than 50% of waste from projects this year.

The report in its entirety is very telling within the context of green building and sustainable development as a whole.  Its a punctuation mark to the never ending issue on the importance of waste management in sustainable development.  Now, waste has earned the equal billing it deserves as energy and water.  I have always thought that sustainable development has its own three-legged stool:  energy, water and waste.  This logic has finally been justified.

Seriously, construction waste has indeed gone mainstream....

“To achieve true sustainability, we must reduce our 'garbage index" - that which we permanently throw away into the environment that will not be naturally recycled for reuse - to near zero. Productive activities must be organized as closed systems. Minerals and other nonbiodegradable resources, once taken from the ground, must become a part of society's permanent capital stock and be recycled in perpetuity. Organic materials may be disposed into the natural ecosystems, but only in ways that assure that they are absorbed back into the natural production system.” - David Korten

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