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Construction & Demolition Debris (C&D): Deconstruction, not Demolition!

Construction and Demolition (C&D) Debris, sometimes described as Construction, Demolition & Disaster (CDD) Debris, is a large waste stream that contains many valuable materials. However, when buildings are simply demolished, that is a lot of waste that ends up in landfills or (even worse) incinerators.

Many jobs can be created reusing and recycling used building materials, through what is known as deconstruction – the careful dismantling of buildings to reduce waste, minimize pollution, and build the local economy.

Below are resources on C&D waste, deconstruction, and building material reuse:

Reports & General Resources:

States with Building Material Reuse / Deconstruction Policies:

Cities with Building Material Reuse / Deconstruction Policies:

Building Material Reuse Businesses:

[The following overview was compiled from some of the resources above, including Treasure in the Walls, Deconstruction & Building Material Reuse: A Tool for Local Governments & Economic Development Practitioners, and Deconstruction is Policy Already Written, by Sara Badiali]

Benefits of Deconstruction

  • Workforce development
  • Economic driver with small business start ups
  • Increase materials salvaged for use in the circular economy in reuse stores
  • Minimizes health impacts to toxins in the air, water, and soil

Economics

Reclaiming materials affects the economy by creating jobs, job training, and markets for materials. It cuts down on the need for harvesting new materials like timber, and removes the need for landfill space. Reclaiming materials reduces carbon dioxide and other emissions. The benefits are often called a triple bottom line economy by creating jobs, markets, and sustainable environmental practices.

The triple bottom line – environmental, economic, community – benefits of deconstruction is well documented. According to the Delta Institute, deconstruction can offer several environmental, economic and community benefits for communities with high vacancy rates and unemployment. Those benefits include:

Environmental benefits

  • Reduced toxic dust from job sites
  • Reduced heavy metal leaching into soil
  • Reduced waste to landfills
  • Reduced consumption of virgin material

Economic benefits

  • Jobs from removing structures via deconstruction versus demolition
  • Jobs for the hard-to-employ
  • Resale of building materials
  • Sale of value-added products

Social benefits

  • Removal of blight
  • Potential workforce development partnerships
  • Potential for workforce training and contractor training
  • Potential for local reclaimed materials to be used in restoration and preservation of older and historic structures.

Deconstruction is an employment multiplier:

The workforce potential of deconstruction does not end at the direct jobs on the job site. The deconstruction field offers a higher employment multiplier than demolition. There are more indirect jobs that emerge related to deconstruction as salvaged materials are transported offsite. These include warehouse jobs, retail and sales jobs, and value-added manufacturing jobs as a result of “upcycling” of the salvaged materials. Additionally, these indirect industries provide additional workforce development and training opportunities. The combined direct and indirect offer more induced jobs that are a result of the direct/indirect wages spent in the local economy.

HEALTH IMPACTS

Lead, as well as other chemical pollutants from construction sites, such as asbestos, crystalline silica, mercury, and arsenic, can also soak into the surrounding soil. This has the potential to contaminate groundwater supply and drinking water which can cause serious health issues, including cancer, if ingested. Deconstruction offers a way of mitigating these hazards. Removal of building parts piece by piece means hazardous materials remain largely intact. Processes like planning to remove lead paint and denailing are done at a warehouse in a controlled environment, avoiding contamination at the building site. Contact with hazardous materials occurs in building removal no matter what, but studies show less risk for airborne and ground seeping hazards when homes are deconstructed rather than demolished.

Buildings contain a lot of materials that when pulverized and put into the environment, whether air, water or soil, can make people sick. On a massive scale, the destruction of the World Trade Towers led to injury, chronic illness and death in many people exposed to the toxic dust that the manmade disaster caused.

Demolition of buildings can generate unhealthy exposures for residents and workers. A European study estimated that demolitions composed about 1/6 of the total waste stream. A major air pollutant from demolition of concern is particulate matter, an important cause of increased mortality, lung and cardiovascular disease and lung cancer. Increases in silica exposure occur with demolition and silica is associated with lung diseases like silicosis, chronic obstructive lung disease as well as lung cancer. As one study concluded “workers and bystanders are exposed to high short-term peak exposures for which occupational standards do not exist. Asbestos is a cancer causing fiber found in buildings from roof, insulation piping and flooring and has been documented to still be present even after abatement of asbestos was completed. This is alarming because it is established that asbestos causes mesothelioma which is a cancer of the chest and abdominal linings of the body and cancer of the lung. It is a probable cause of cancer of the larynx, and ovary. Arsenic and chromium, also found in demolition dust, are both associated with increased risk of lung cancer with occupational exposure.

Lead is perhaps the most worrisome heavy metal found in demolition dust. One Chicago study found a 31-fold increase in lead dust at demolition sites. Wetting the site before and during demolition reduces the lead dust fall in the surrounding neighborhood significantly but raises the question of what happens to the lead after it is wetted? Lead is especially toxic to children’s brains and there is no safe level. In addition to lead, chemical exposures like brominated flame retardants (PBDE) are “forever” chemicals, and health concerns include endocrine disruption, neurotoxicity and increasing risk of cancer. Both are examples of neurotoxins that potentially by reducing IQ can lead to significant lifetime losses of income after in utero (PBDE) and childhood (lead) exposure. Although better regulations have led to a drop in blood lead levels over time, demolition of older homes with legacy chemicals built before regulations restricted their use, may still be a source of this contaminated and dangerous dust.

In summary, there are health hazards to workers and residents in the dust generated by demolishing old buildings. In addition to contaminated dust, there are other concerns from demolition site waste (run off waste wetted down, waste taken to landfills, waste burned in incinerators). Abatement is only a partial solution. Deconstruction avoids many of these health hazards.