In the United States, about 30 percent of the trash that ends up in landfills comes from construction sites, and there is a move afoot nationwide to begin doing something about the problem.

The state of Massachusetts is about to enact a statewide ban on disposal of construction debris and demolition waste in landfills.  Specifically, brick, concrete, wood, metal and asphalt are going to be among the first materials banned, and other materials will follow.

The primary purpose of the ban is to force people to recycle their construction waste products rather than bury them in landfills.

This is not as easy as it seems.  It is time-consuming and costly to separate waste materials and to recycle them.  Proponents suggest training workers to separate and store the materials and to place a manager on the construction site to supervise the efforts.

What this initially means is additional construction costs.  After all, it takes more man-hours to sort recyclable materials, more dumpsters (one for each material) and more office overhead for personnel to find companies who will take the debris off of their hands.

On the other hand, think of the far-reaching cost implications by considering the example of Alliant Energy in Madison, Wisconcin.

When Alliant built its new world headquarters, a 324,000 square foot building, it implemented a construction waste reduction program.  They were able to recyle about 75 percent of the construction debris, which totaled 527 tons of cardboard, metal, wood, drywall and cans and bottles.

The amount of cardboard they recycled was the equivalent of 1,224 trees.  The amount of metal recycled saved about 42 tons of coal that otherwise would have been burned to refine new metal from ore.   The amount of wood saved was enough to build 24 homes.  Drywall debris, which is made from gypsum (the same material used as an agricultural fertilizer), was spread on 48 acres of land. 

They also saved $15,000 on disposal fees (no word on whether or not this offset the additional costs of recycling).

It's not just builders who can reduce construction waste.  Much of it can be reduced when the buildings are on the drawing boards.  Architects can significantly reduce construction waste by designing buildings that reduce the cutting of materials.

For example, designing the length and width of a room in 8 foot increments means no cutting of drywall boards (which are manufactured in 4 x 8 sheets) are necessary, and no ceiling panels (standard size is 2 feet x 4 feet).

Though it is not possible to design away all construction waste, attention to modular dimensions and by extrapolating that kind of thought throughout the building can create a significant reduction in construction waste.

Demolition debris from buildings that are torn down create tremendous amounts of debris, and some of it can be very valuable.  Many buildings contain significant quantities of usable lumber that can be re-used as-is, or can be re-milled to dimensional lumber.  Some buildings even contain species of wood that are not easy to find (or economical), such as walnut.  These kinds of buildings could be disassembled to reclaim that kind of lumber rather than destroying it.

It's not just lumber that can be salvaged from these buildings.  Millwork, door hardware, fireplace surrounds, cabinetry, and light fixtures are just a few items that can be removed and sold for re-use in new buildings.  By the same token, many materials can't be removed without being destroyed, and may have no economically feasible use by recycling.

However good, issues like this can often lead to more government regulation, and like many things that come out of the environmental movement, environmentalists would like nothing better than to make it a matter of law to mandate recycling
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Recycling building materials is a great idea, but it needs to be voluntary.  Forcing recycling would likely have negative impact on the construction industry.
 
The free market has a way of picking up good ideas and making them profitable when entrepreneurs see an opportunity to do something worthwhile at a profit.