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February 09, 2010  |  Login
Breaking Down the Largest Landfill Contributor: Building Construction Waste
By Eric Corey Freed
 

Americans generate anywhere from 200 to 250 million tons of solid waste each year. That translates to about 3 ½ to 4 ½ pounds of landfill per person per day. Only 20% to 30% of that waste gets recycled.

As part of the immense environmental impact of buildings, construction waste accounts for almost a quarter of what goes into a landfill. This makes buildings the largest contributor to landfills. In response, many cities are now requiring construction waste to be recycled, to keep it from ending up in the landfill.

The waste from building construction activities breaks down like this:

  • Demolition: 50%
  • Renovation and remodeling: 40%
  • New construction: 10%

Because half of construction waste comes from demolition activities, restoring and keeping old buildings saves a great deal of the material we would otherwise throw away.

All this construction waste is made up of the following ingredients:

  • Concrete and rubble: 40% to 50%
  • Wood: 20% to 30%
  • Drywall: 5% to15%
  • Asphalt roofing: 1% to 10%
  • Metals: 1% to 5%
  • Bricks: 1% to 5%
  • Plastics: 1% to 5%

Most of this construction waste could be recycled if people paid closer attention to how they demolish their buildings. Carefully taking old buildings apart is called deconstruction instead of demolition. If just a quarter of the buildings demolished every year were deconstructed instead, approximately 20 million tons of debris could be diverted from landfills.

Total waste from the typical 2,000-square-foot home adds up to about 8,000 pounds of debris, taking up 50 cubic yards of space in the landfill. That’s about the size of a bedroom in the house you just built.

 
 

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