Construction, renovation and demolition (CRD) projects are responsible for 12% of the waste Canadians send to landfill each year—yet 75% of these materials still have plenty of life left in them. With the right systems in place, many items can be repurposed, reused or recycled, which would alleviate the strain on overburdened landfills and reduce carbon emissions created by newly-manufactured products and materials.
Since 2022, COIL’s Zero Waste Economic Transformation Lab (the Lab) has been exploring opportunities to make the CRD sector more circular by testing and developing new approaches to recover and recycle materials that are currently perceived as waste.
The Construction, Renovation and Demolition Waste Management Guidebook summarizes the initiative’s findings—and outlines a series of best practices that homeowners and industry professionals can follow to reduce the environmental impact of their CRD projects.