Construction & Demolition, Buildings Sector
- Let's Climb Another Molehill - Analyzing Construction, Renovation and Demolition (CR&D) Waste
- Sustainable Design for Buildings: A National Standard
- Facilitating Greater Re-Use and Recycling of Structural Steel in the Construction and Demolition Process
- Enhancing the Recovery of End-of-Life Roofing Materials: An Implementation Plan
Let's Climb Another Molehill – Analyzing Construction, Renovation and Demolition (CR&D) Waste
Project Team
Recycling Council of Ontario, New West Gypsum Recycling Inc., Rescom Projects Inc., Canadian Home Builders’ Association, Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, Public Works and Government Services Canada, City of Toronto, Region of Peel, Greater Toronto Home Builders’ Association, RENOVA Consultants, study site participating firms
Objectives
To provide insight into the magnitude, composition and fate of waste generated from the Construction, Renovation and Demolition (CR&D) sector through waste audits of various CR&D projects.
Description
This project involves an in-depth analysis of 15 CR&D projects, specifically: low- and high-rise residential renovation projects and CR&D activity on commercial, industrial and institutional sites. This study will engage owners, managers and staff who work on these sites daily for meaningful data and information input. Project outputs include: detailed financial and composition audits of CRD site waste and development of a prototype design for "The Molehill Tool": a practical site-specific, handbook on job-site waste management, reduction and recycling.
Resources
Sustainable Design for Buildings: A National Standard
Project Team
Canadian Standards Association (CSA) and members of the CSA Technical Committee
Objectives
To promote sustainable design practices and the efficient use of materials and resources in building construction.
Description
During the course of the project, a new CSA Standard on Sustainable Design for Buildings is to be developed that will provide direction on methods to reduce construction waste and to enhance recycling through sustainable design principles and practices. The Standard will be applicable to new and existing buildings. The proposed scope of the CSA Standard is to include design approaches and criteria, guidance on material and system configurations, system-specific disassembly-conscious details, and specification clauses for building systems such as building structure and envelope. The CSA standard will take into consideration life cycle concepts according to the ISO 14040 series of standards, design approach and design criteria to maximize material recovery and minimize the generation of waste. The CSA has established a “Technical Committee” that will be responsible for developing the technical content of the new standard.
Resources
The report is available at Canadian Standards Association
Facilitating Greater Re-Use and Recycling of Structural Steel in the Construction and Demolition Process
Project Team
Canadian Institute of Steel Construction, and the School of Architectural Science, Ryerson University
Objective
The project goal is to develop a greater understanding of the materials flows in the steel construction sector and to use this knowledge to provide tools that will facilitate greater re-use and recycling of steel components.
Description
There is little information in Canada about re-use and recycling rates for construction steel and, although some designers are willing to redesign their projects to make use of available re-used structural components, it is often difficult to identify suitable materials in the local area at the appropriate time in a project life. There is currently no mechanism to make steel components easily available to designers, construction companies and others who may wish to use such components in new construction projects. This project will involve some material flow analysis, some case study surveys, and the establishment of a web site to inform industry of the opportunities.
Resources
Enhancing the Recovery of End-of-Life Roofing Materials: An Implementation Plan
Project Team
Natural Resources Canada, Public Works and Government Services Canada, the National Research Council, the Canadian Construction Innovation Council
Objective
To develop a national implementation plan for increasing the recovery of end-of-life roofing materials from the residential and Industrial, Commercial and Institutional (IC&I) roofing industries.
Description
The report explores options for environmentally sound recycling of these materials and discusses key recycling applications such as road surfaces and energy recovery. The enhanced recovery of these end-of-life roofing materials addresses technological, economic and social/market acceptance barriers and challenges. Future action on enhancing the recovery of end-of-life roofing materials are driven by three key drivers:
- the large volume of construction waste that is currently disposed of in landfills;
- the potential benefits in terms of reduced greenhouse gas emissions from the diversion of end of life roofing materials to other purposes other than landfill; and
- the increasingly limited availability of landfill space in general which will drive communities to greater levels of waste diversion and management.