Recycling as a construction waste management technique

As green building concepts and sustainability principles continue to grow within the Canadian construction industry, construction companies are forced to adopt alternative, environmentally friendly waste management methods in order to avoid traditional landfilling. This paper documents the findings of a study carried out to investigate the economic viability of recycling construction waste. The study was carried out based on data collected on waste material collection, sorting and other activities related to waste management processes at two building construction projects in Calgary, Alberta. The results indicate that, under current market conditions, recycling is still not economically favourable compared with landfilling for two categories of waste (clean wood and drywall), while recycling of cardboard is favourable under certain conditions, for instance in situations where the rate of waste generation justifies the allocation of labour for waste collection and sorting. However, economisation of the recycling process is not unachievable if efforts are made. Recommendations towards the optimisation of the recycling of construction waste as a sustainable technique are provided.