Given increasing concerns for the marine environment and human health, as well as trade restrictions from Asian countries, plastics have become a great challenge for the United States.

This study addresses the seven commonly used plastics: low-density polyethylene/linear low-density polyethylene, high-density polyethylene, polyethylene terephthalate (PET), polypropylene, polystyrene, polyvinyl chloride, and other plastics.

Demand for aluminum in final products has increased 30-fold since 1950 to 45 million tonnes per year, with forecasts predicting this exceptional growth to continue so that demand will reach 2–3 times today’s levels by 2050. Aluminum production uses 3.5% of global electricity and causes 1% of global CO2 emissions, while meeting a 50% cut in emissions by 2050 against growing demand would require at least a 75% reduction in CO2 emissions per tonne of aluminum produced—a challenging prospect.

Over the past four decades, global plastics production has quadrupled. If this trend were to continue, the GHG emissions from plastics would reach 15% of the global carbon budget by 2050. Strategies to mitigate the life-cycle GHG emissions of plastics, however, have not been evaluated on a global scale.

Gypsum is widely used in the construction sector, and its worldwide consumption has been increasing for several decades. Depending on the lifetime of the used gypsum products, an increase of gypsum in construction and demolition waste follows. Especially against the background of a circular economy, the recycling of waste gypsum is of growing importance. However, the use of recycled gypsum only makes sense if it is environmentally friendly.

Glass is a highly recyclable material, despite which, end-of-life building glass is almost never recycled into new glass products.

In the UK alone, almost 200,000 tonnes of glass is currently sent to landfill each year. In the EU, the proper recycling of all building glass waste could avoid 925,000 tonnes of landfilled waste every year and save around 1.23 million tonnes of primary raw materials annually.

The role of plastic materials in construction has become indispensable in the past decades with regard to the global megatrends urbanisation, climate, health, environment and affordable housing. 

Demolishing unwanted buildings wastes vast quantities of valuable resources, driving up financial and environmental costs. Deconstruction offers a means of salvaging materials for reuse. It also creates more jobs than demolition, spurs local innovation and industry, preserves local character and heritage, reduces landfill costs and limits the need for virgin (and often carbon-intensive) materials.

Thanks to funding from Innovate UK, in collaboration with the NICER programme, a new ‘toolkit’ has been developed as part of the ASBP-led ‘Delivering Innovative Steel ReUse ProjecT‘ (DISRUPT).

Using the methodology presented in the Eco-innovation Manual, this supplement on building materials provides sector-specific information and guidance to sustainability consultancy service providers supporting companies in eco-innovation. It should be used alongside the Manual to provide further context at each step and examples of how the methodology, activities and templates can be applied in real life to a company in the building materials sector.

Evaluating demolition versus deconstruction practices - policy lessons from municipalitites around the US.

Faced with housing crises, aging building stock, landfill concerns, and climate impacts to the builtenvironment, municipalities and states are increasingly turning  their attention to deconstruction and building material reuse as an alternative to demolition.