Environmental Benefits of Managing Construction & Demolition Debris

Reducing the Impacts of Supplying Virgin Feedstock

Taking measures to manage C&D debris in a way that increases recycling and reuse will reduce the the need to produce new materials from natural resources such as trees, oil, and minerals. The activities necessary to mine and harvest natural resources to provide virgin material feedstock to manufacturers and processors takes a toll on our environment by:

• Consuming finite resources

• Negatively impacting local, regional and global land, water and air quality
• Often result in unanticipated, long-term damage to ecosystems.

• Reusing building materials contributes to reduces or eliminates the pollution related to the manufacturing and transportation of new materials. 
• Recycling debris increases the amount of material available for producing new recycle-content products. Not only does the recycled material typically cost manufacturers less than virgin material, but the energy consumed in the manufacturing process is usually less than the energy consumed using virgin materials. Less energy means less pollution.