While new construction projects, whether they be residential or commercial, offer many benefits to society, the waste created by these construction projects can cause serious damage. No matter the size of the project, the sheer amount of waste created by construction projects makes it hard to dispose of properly.
To put the scale of the problem into perspective, the Environmental Protection Agency found that total waste from construction-related projects was double that of municipal waste from households and businesses in 2018.
To help you better understand the issue of construction waste, here are a few more statistics from the EPA:
The U.S. generated over 600 million tons of construction-related waste in 2018.
Construction and demolition waste generation in the U.S. increased by 342% from 1990 to 2018.
Between 2005 and 2018, construction and demolition waste levels grew more than 10x faster than from 1990 to 2005.
While the construction waste statistics look grim, there are steps that can be taken to reduce construction waste in the planning stages. To help highlight the ways in which construction projects can lower their environmental impact, Big Rentz shares a few to eliminate construction waste, understand the construction waste stream and building materials that actually help reduce waste to pave the way for a greener future.
