Editor's Focus

Catching It All

Zero waste as a concept and goal has been around since at least the 1970s, when a chemist began attempting to apply the concept to the handling of chemicals being used in the electronics manufacturing industry.

The term has subsequently been used by others, including several not-for-profit organizations, and the goal has been adopted by corporations as large as Nike, DuPont and Wal-Mart.

For the vast majority of us, the notion of generating no waste whatsoever succumbs to harsh realities fairly quickly. It was one of several challenges that faced author and environmental advocate Colin Beavan as he chronicled his year of being “No Impact Man” in the book of that same name that was published in the fall of 2009.

Thanks in part to LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification sought by many property owners, managers overseeing construction and demolition projects are finding themselves being urged to adopt a zero-waste mentality like Beavan—but with large volumes of material and with little time to spare.

Diverting scrap materials and debris from the landfill makes up only a fractional component of the overall LEED scorecard. But its inclusion from the start of the LEED scoring system has helped ingrain the practice in the minds of architects, general contractors and property owners who strive for LEED certification.

For operators of mixed C&D recycling plants and concrete crushing services, the spread of LEED certification has helped spur additional business. Contrarily, for some demolition contractors and hauling companies, it has introduced complications.

Each of these sectors has historically made recycle-or-don’t-recycle decisions based on project-specific economics. The growing trend toward greater recycling of concrete, wood and other materials has been tied to a) a healthier demand for those materials and; b) a desire to avoid the costs of hauling materials to a landfill and paying the tipping fee once there.

To some extent, the rapid rise of LEED has caused contractors and haulers to set aside their traditional formulas and to comply with project-specific recycling mandates.

The future of LEED certification is thus of interest not only to the United States Green Building Council (overseers of the LEED system), but to companies engaged in construction, demolition and transportation services to contractors.

If the people commissioning major building projects continue to make commitments to recycle the materials generated, then some older ways of doing business—from estimating to hauling to putting together a punch list—may be in the course of changing permanently.

That could be perceived as bad news, good news or somewhere in between, but all indications are that it will remain in the news in 2010 and beyond.