Construction waste
[3] When waste is created, options of disposal include exportation to a landfill, incineration, direct site reuse through integration into construction or as fill dirt, and recycling for a new use if applicable.
Observational research has shown that this can be as high as 10 to 15% of the materials that go into a building, a much higher percentage than the 2.5-5% usually assumed by quantity surveyors and the construction industry.
The EPA aims to increase access to collection, processing, and recycling infrastructure in order to meet this issue head on.
Construction waste can be categorized as follows: Design, Handling, Worker, Management, Site condition, Procurement and External.
[9] Examples of this type of waste are as follows: Steel is used as reinforcement and structural integrity in the vast majority of construction projects.
The main reasons steel is wasted on a site is due to irresponsible beam cutting and fabrication issues.
The deviations from actually constructed concrete slabs and beams and the design amounts necessary were found to be 5.4% and 2.7% larger than expected, respectively, when comparing the data from 30 Brazilian sites.
[10] It is often difficult to plan and keep track of all the pipes and wires on a site as they are used in so many different areas of a project, especially when electrical and plumbing services are routinely subcontracted.
The European Union, for example, puts principal to the "4R" system which includes "Recovery" in order to reduce waste of materials.
The toxic fumes emitted by WTE plants can contain harmful chemicals such as mercury and other heavy metals, carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide, and dioxins.
By the time the EPA deemed dioxins to be highly toxic in the 1980s, the CDC recommended the town be abandoned entirely due to contaminated waste products in the area.
By 1985, the entire population of Times Beach had been relocated, prompting Missouri to build a new incinerator on the contaminated land.
Dioxins are a family of chemicals produced as a byproduct during the manufacturing of many pesticides and construction materials like carpeting and PVC.
Rates of cancer such as non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and soft tissue sarcoma rise significantly the closer one lives to the pollutants' source.
In the 2016 EU Construction & Demolition Waste Management Protocol, they emphasize the benefits beyond financial gains for recycling such as job creation and reduced landfilling.
They also suggest the use of taxation to reduce the economic advantage of the landfills to create a situation where recycling becomes a reasonable choice financially.
The main points of how the Europeans choose to address this issue of waste management is through the utilization of the tools given to a governing body to keep its people safe.
Unlike in the United States, the EU's philosophy on waste management is not that it is an optional good thing to do when you can but a mandatory part of construction in the 21st century to ensure a healthy future for generations to follow.
In the United Kingdom, all personnel performing builders or construction waste clearance are required by law to be working for a CIS registered business.
The California Department of Resource Recycling and Recovery (CalRecycle) was created in 2010 to address the growing C&D waste problem in the United States.
They promote these ordinances by creating incentive programs to encourage companies to participate in the waste diversion practices.
