Why Should You Reuse and Recycle Building Materials and Furnishings?

Why should you reuse and recycle building materials? Isn’t it exhausting doing this time-consuming and messy process of collecting, sorting and recycling waste, whereas you can just deliver this waste to the landfill and simply purchase brand new products from stores? Why used recycled products? Well, that’s very easy to say if you neither care the environment nor believe on preservation of ecology and resources. The planet has now changed and the environment is not as healthy as it was centuries ago. The effect of climate change is getting worse as the green house gas emissions is continuing to take its toll, and all human being will be the first one to suffer on this if everyone aren’t taking these problems seriously. Construction industries had its share on the generation of huge volume of waste within the entire life cycle of the building including new construction as well as major renovations, operation, and demolition; that is why construction industry is expected to share the big part in addressing the problem. Project team pursuing green building certification is likely most motivated in implementing reuse and recycle of materials as majority of benchmark tools required projects to pursue this innovation.

Foremost reason why it is necessary to reuse and recycle building materials is to reduce the adverse effect of building construction to the environment. Older buildings that needs to be demolished in order to give way for new development present opportunity to salvage and recycle, before a particular buildings turned in to rubble the owner could sell all the functional materials or utilize that for new projects. A serviceable materials and furnishing from this buildings such as non-structural windows, trim, doors, timber, furniture, fixtures, flooring, cabinets, and etc. requires only a proper removal procedure and could be used again, utilizing as many recycled materials are helpful in reducing the demand of virgin resources for new buildings. In fact, production of new materials and products adds up vast emissions of greenhouse gas and consumptions of natural resources. Whereas, implementing this innovative approach during construction would considerably cut the requirements of procuring new and expensive products. Along with this, it is recommended that project team plan this strategy at the earlier stage of project planning; as well as it is necessary to identify potential sources and consider materials that contained with higher percentage of recycled materials.

Maximizing the usage of salvaged and recycled materials in construction projects will relatively cut huge volume of waste that goes to landfill which certainly adds burden and eventually requires additional landfill areas. In addition, from the business point of view, several companies venturing in collecting and recycling waste are making significant profit from this since there is a sharp increase of demands from these services. The increasing awareness and implementation of reuse and recycling materials are not only beneficial to the environment but also support the recycling industry to generate revenue, and thus this will help persuade and motivate small to medium companies to participate in this industry.

Reuse and recycling of materials are giving usable waste another life, some materials from an old or vacated buildings that are about to be demolished or converted could be used for other construction projects, instead of disposing it to landfill which would be too costly for the environment, on one hand, these materials is practically useful for other purpose instead of purchasing equivalent brand new products. Project owner can significantly save money in reusing and recycling process, project team only needs to be resourceful in searching for quality source. During the planning stage the team can draw an outline and criteria which materials are possible to be replaced with salvaged materials.

Building project pursuing green building certification will benefit as well on reuse and recycling of materials since most of the green building rating system includes this criteria. Taking Leed as example, projects that are pursuing Leeds certification has several available options including material reuse, construction waste management, and recycled content. Obtaining number of points in this category will help the project reach its certification goals.

Community and companies have been adapting reuse and recycling of waste, however, several are becoming complacent with the little achievement they had. Addressing this problem is a continuing process and it requires commitments and changes on attitudes and behavior, waste management should become part of our culture and not just regular task that could draw us lazy sometime. Implementing reuse and recycling procedure in every construction projects will make a difference since building industry is one of source of huge volume of waste, this industry should also be proactive in addressing the waste problems. Along with this, we only need to be consistent and set higher standards as a driver in addressing this issue.

J.V. Baslot is an architect and a freelance writer; passionate and advocate on environment and sustainability. Please visit http://www.aboutsustainability.net to find out more interesting topic about green building design and sustainability. For comments and further information you can drop email: info@aboutsustainability.net

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