Across the country, dismantling existing buildings is gaining popularity as an alternative to demolition. Material recovery helps extend supplies of natural resources, and diverts wood waste from landfills. Growth in building materials recovery has been fueled in part by military base decommissioning, which made available complexes of buildings with vast quantities of material. A few of these sites became showcases of material recovery. The former Fort Ord Army Base in Santa Clara, California was the site of one deconstruction pilot project, and buildings at the Presidio of San Francisco were also deconstructed. Current brownfield initiatives have spurred interest in redeveloping urban sites, many of which harbor abandoned industrial buildings. As just one example, dismantling the Terminal 4 shipping warehouse in Portland, Oregon, yielded 4 million board feet of recovered lumber, which found ready markets.

As successful as current efforts are, many more recoverable materials are landfilled each year. The vast majority of residential demolition involves no material recovery efforts. Similarly, new residential construction recovers little of its waste, although packaging and other materials generated at these sites are readily recyclable. In addition, new scrap-grinding and fingerjointing technologies are making new construction waste recovery ever more feasible.

The cost effectiveness of salvage and recovery for construction and demolition waste usually depends on the following factors:

• Avoided disposal costs
  In regions of the country with high landfill tipping fees, recycling and salvage activities are most likely to be a cost effective option. Landfill disposal costs can constitute 10% of a new construction budget, and a far greater portion of a demolition project budget. Even if recovered waste materials don't have a high resale value, it often costs less to recycle them or donate them for reuse than to dispose of them in a conventional or specialized C&D landfill. When materials are source separated and recycled or reused, disposal cost can be greatly reduced, especially if the waste stream includes heavy or bulky material.
  
  
• Material quality
  Some historic architectural antiques are so valuable that it makes sense to recover them even if it requires a great deal of special effort and expense. Other materials may not have such obvious value, but are still worth the extra effort it takes to recover them. The quality of wood from historic buildings often surpasses that of lumber available today. Wood that was formerly used structurally or in subflooring is often of high enough quality to be remilled for finish carpentry. Older full dimension wood can be remilled and still meet today's nominal size requirements for lumber.
  
  
• Labor costs
  Often the bottom line of salvage or recycling activities rests with labor costs. If materials have a low resale or recycling value, it probably will not be cost effective to recover them with skilled construction labor. However, utilizing unskilled labor for de-nailing timbers or sorting recyclable materials can make recovery of these materials profitable, or at least less costly than landfill disposal.
  

A final factor that can be very important in instigating material recovery and recycling programs, regardless of cost, is waste management regulation. Some disposal facilities ban construction and demolition waste. In other areas, using a certain percentage of recycled-content materials is mandatory, and required recycling of waste could well be the next code requirement. It is increasingly common for clients, ranging from the federal government to individual homeowners, to demand that builders develop and implement job-site recycling programs.

In some parts of the United States, specialized construction waste management services are helping builders implement material recovery and recycling processes. Waste management services contract with builders to offer separate collection bins for recyclable materials, and waste hauling. Some businesses specialize in deconstruction of existing buildings, and recover the materials for resale. Building material exchange facilities are also appearing across the country. Some of these are non-profit organizations that will accept donations of reusable materials from builders in return for tax write-offs. Other facilities operate as for-profit business that accept reusable materials for a low fee, or may even purchase higher-value reusable materials for resale.

As an infrastructure develops to support construction and demolition waste diversion and recovery, it is becoming easier for builders to join in. Not only are recovery, recycling and reuse environmentally preferable waste management options, but builders are finding them cost-effective as well.