Reuse construction waste first, then recycle

We all know the three Rs of waste, but reducing and recycling often get a lot more attention than reusing. But now a report from the UK's Bioregional Development Group and construction waste reclamation body Salvo has re-iterated that reusing materials offers greater environmental benefits than recycling.

Via Treehugger.com, BioRegional's Jonathan Essex says: "Pushing reuse clearly shows the benefits that reuse brings over recycling. For example, if we reclaimed 50% of reusable iron and steel the carbon savings would be equivalent to taking 29,000 cars off the road - and that's for just two materials. Yes, reclamation is currently more labour intensive than recycling which makes it more expensive, but it creates green jobs and products that often have a higher value than recycled - for instance reclaimed bricks are worth much more than bricks recycled into aggregate."

The report - available here - makes some key recommendations to British policy makers: create a "reuse champion" to direct investment in new capacity and R&D, provide information to the public and work with government to promote reuse; invest in storage and re-processing capacity for reuse of construction products; set targets for the reuse of construction waste and support reuse through planning policy; incentivise reuse and reclamation by adding materials to the EU emissions trading scheme; and direct landfill revenues to reuse before recycling.

Anyone interested in this topic should check out our article Deconstruct Ireland - it's all about designing buildings for disassembly and reuse.