Demolition waste can be environmentally disastrous, but Denver says ‘no more’

Colorado’s recycling and composting rates ranked among the worst 20 states in the nation in 2021. That same year, the recycling and composting rate in the Front Range was a dismal 16.2%.

The implementation of Denver’s Waste No More ballot initiative, which will expand recycling and composting to commercial businesses and apartment buildings, could provide a much needed overhaul to Denver’s waste disposal system. Over the next few years, as Waste No More is implemented, the amount of waste Denver sends to landfills may be halved, and untold numbers of food scraps, plastics and other materials will be diverted to recycling centers, composting facilities, community gardens or elsewhere.

Waste disposal is a uniquely visible and personal environmental issue, which is perhaps why 70% of Denver voters supported the Waste No More ballot initiative in November. However, the initiative also confronts a less visible but equally ubiquitous environmental issue: construction and demolition waste.

In the Waste No More ballot initiative, underneath eight sections of legalese describing how and when composting and recycling will be expanded throughout the city, is a single section concerning construction and demolition waste. This easter egg states that after June 1, 2023, most construction and demolition activities in Denver will have to “separate and recycle, at a minimum, all readily-recyclable concrete, asphalt, clean wood, scrap metal and corrugated cardboard.”

In 2018, construction and demolition waste made up 40% of landfill waste in the United States. Unlike the bags of water bottles, cigarette butts, broken electronics, eggshells and cereal boxes that make up the average person’s daily waste, construction and demolition waste is veiled behind caution tape and witnessed almost exclusively by construction crews. Although many types of construction and demolition waste can be reused, recycled or repurposed, such as concrete, wood, metals, glass and bricks, 145 million tons of these, and other materials, ended up in landfills in 2018. Of that, 90% was attributed to demolition. In the U.S., an astonishing amount of resources are destroyed in order to build.

Demolishing and disposing of building materials is environmentally disastrous. Landfills emit methane and carbon dioxide, contributing to climate change. When buildings are demolished to make way for new development, perfectly reusable or recyclable materials are usually scrapped in favor of new materials. As a result, freshly mined, logged or manufactured resources are pumped into the economy, creating carbon emissions at each stage of production, at the expense of wildlife habitats and our climate. In fact, it’s estimated that the construction industry absorbs 75% of the raw materials used in the U.S. each year. The construction industry requires a high input of materials, but has an egregiously low rate of reuse.

Carefully deconstructing buildings, rather than demolishing them, enables the recovery of materials that can be sold at a lower cost and reused. Unfortunately, a multitude of obstacles prevents deconstruction from being the norm. Construction timelines and budgets may not accommodate deconstruction crews. In some regions, there may not be an established industry for receiving and reselling used building materials. Whatever the cause, the end result is the same: landfill waste, carbon emissions, a constant input of new raw materials.

Some municipalities and state governments have taken steps to incentivize salvaging building materials and diverting landfill waste. Portland, Oregon, requires that all buildings built before 1940 be deconstructed instead of demolished. This law benefitted residents’ public health as well as the environment, by reducing the clouds of asbestos and lead dust spewed onto neighboring homes from demolition sites. Within Colorado, any full structure removal (demolition) projects in the city of Boulder must divert 75% of the building materials by weight from the landfill.

The Waste No More ballot initiative promises a major reduction in landfill waste in Denver in a highly visible way: Businesses and apartment buildings will now have three waste receptacles. More obscure but equally promising, is the requirement that all readily-recyclable concrete, asphalt, clean wood, scrap metal and corrugated cardboard from construction and demolition projects must be recycled.

This is a boon to deconstruction services and building material reuse stores in Denver. Eventually, the increased flow of used, less-expensive construction materials into the economy may counter the cost of deconstruction crews. Until then, the price of deconstruction is more than justified by the environmental benefit — Denver is on its way to wasting no more.