|
|
| Cultivate Green |
May 18, 2005
A study conducted for the Environmental Protection Agency found that 136 million tons of debris was generated in 1996 by construction and demolition (C&D) waste. C & D waste was defined as debris from the following structures; both residential and non-residential buildings, roads, and bridges. The residential construction component of those 136 million tons of debris was forty-three (43%) percent of the waste or (58 million tons per year). The fact that the non-residential waste stream is larger than the residential should not come as a surprise due to the scale of America's buildings. The surprise may come in the distribution of waste across the categories of activity. Demolitions account of 48 percent of the waste stream and renovation activity accounts for 44 percent. This leaves a paltry 8 percent of the waste stream attributable to new construction waste.
In the residential waste stream only realm, the renovation activity accounts for 55% of the total residential waste stream, demolition 34%, and new construction accounts for 11% of the 8% total. Thus fixating on the waste at new construction sites as is so popular is to really miss the point.
Waste reduction, reuse and recycling are important components of sustainable building. C & D waste handling is a fast growing industry with many exciting opportunities for us in the Houston area to capitalize on. On May the 18th four of the area's experts in the C & D waste arena shared their expertise with those in attendance. Greg Roberts, AIA and LEED AP, of Watkins, Hamilton and Ross and USGBC-Houston Chapter: Commercial Demolition Waste; Marisa Hegeysi of Commercial Metals: Environmental Benefits of Scrap Metal Recycling, MBA, Lynn Edmundson, AIA and LEED AP of Historic Houston Salvage: Residential Renovation Salvage, and Brian Yeoman, MA, of Houston Advanced Research Center: Residential Construction and Demolition Waste. These presenters made a myriad of information available and answered questions on their subject matter.
Greg Roberts provided a great historical background and built the foundation for the evening rather nicely. His work with large scale commercial institutional projects was very engaging and the fact that some of this work has been going on in Houston at The University of Texas Health Science Center was very helpful in understanding what might be possible in the marketplace. Greg presented very precise data on the results and shared his professional opinion that it is the case that for many materials it is now very economically practical to recycle materials for the contractors and that many instances they can actually make money.
The content was rich and the presentations were beautiful. We learned that concrete, steel, packaging, wood, bricks and shingles were relatively easy to recycle. We also heard in case study format about projects in Houston that had achieved waste stream diversion rates in excess of 75%. This was most encouraging. We also learned that the steel industry is making valuable contributions to the economy and to the environment. Marisa Hegyesi made a tight presentation on the role of ferrous and non ferrous metals in the Houston and American economy and clearly demonstrated the value of recycling this often disabused material.
We learned that the mantra reduce, reuse and recycle according to Brian Yeoman is focused too often on the recycling component and that this is the least effective tactic, rather like eco-efficiency and we were challenge to move our thinking to reducing what we use by reducing what we design.
Lynn Edmundson really opened our eyes by showing us how the reuse of materials can be accomplished successfully at a very large scale with beautiful results. The fact that so much material is capable of reuse and that there is an active Houston market was encouraging.
Brian Yeoman presented an overview of a study that he has done for the Houston Galveston Area Council (HGAC). The study is a residential C & D study. It was intended to examine the waste stream and did just that with amazing statistics in one custom built residence in the Woodlands. It also evaluated a method of onsite recycling by grinding on site those materials which can be ground onsite and deployed on the immediate site. The reduction in the amount of material going to the waste stream was very dramatic. He shared the outline of the proposed handbook, and website on the topic of C & D waste that HGAC hopes to employ in the near future.
|
|
| Page Updated/Reviewed: 05/18/2006 2:26 PM |
|
|
2.72 MB