The construction sector’s take-make-waste approach to materials needs an overhaul. Materials and construction account for an estimated 11 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions annually, according to the World Green Building Council. At the other end of the life cycle, demolition in the United States annually generates 90% of some 600 million tons of construction-sector debris, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s most recent report—that’s more than twice the amount of municipal solid waste from all other sources—and 145 million tons of it goes straight to landfill. Getting trashed alongside are the cultural, economic, and environmental values those materials embody. Indications are, though, that this staggering, decades-long profligacy is about to change.

https://www.buildinggreen.com/feature/waste-not-want-not-case-studies-building-material-reuse