Deconstruction of building materials is an alternative to demolition, which preserves material integrity for re-use instead of extracting raw materials for building products. Re-use, also referred to as “urban mining” is one of the most effective ways to reduce waste, conserve valuable resources, and lower carbon emissions.

By the numbers

Deconstructing instead of demolishing a 2,000 sq. ft. house:

2,400

gallons of water saved

33 trees

still standing

240 Tons

of greenhouse gas emissions prevented.

Deconstruction and reuse of wood on forklift

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Bay Area Deconstruction Working Group

The Bay Area Deconstruction Workgroup is a group of Northern California deconstruction and reuse leaders from government, private, and nonprofit sectors working to improve policies and practices advancing safe building materials recovery and reuse.
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Benefits of Deconstruction and Reuse:

Benefits to Building Professionals

  • Offer clients a potential cost offset in the form of a tax deduction, which equates to real cash savings.
  • Lower disposal costs. Salvage materials mean substantially less goes to landfill.
  • Give clients added value. They’ll thank you for the bonus now – and again at tax time.
  • Gain and advantage over the competition. Deconstruction trumps the bulldozer mentality every time
  • Help the environment
  • Take the first step in the green-building process

Benefits to the Building Owner

  • Receive a real cost offset for donated materials. An independent expert appraiser determines the appraised value of donated materials, which usually results in a significant tax deduction!
  • Reduce the cost of the overall project. When offset by tax savings and lower disposal costs, the net savings increase.
  • Reusable materials are kept out of overburdened landfills
  • Someone, somewhere, reuses the materials, giving them extended life in new or remodeled homes.

Construction & Demolition FAQs

Find Recycling Facilities

Additional Resources

  • Carpet Tile Reuse flyer lists local organizations that accept clean carpet tiles for reuse.
  • RecyclerFinder is an online and mobile application for quickly locating facilities nationwide that handle C&D and other recycled materials.
  • Waste Tracking is a web-based construction waste management tool that StopWaste was involved with developing.

Hazardous waste and materials are common at construction sites. The Baywise website has information about how to handle hazardous wastes from deconstruction or demolition projects.

The materials listed here CANNOT be placed in the trash or recycled using curbside recycling. They must be recycled by a specialty recycler. If you need to dispose of a material not on this list, search our RE:Source guide.

Residents: Find out how to properly dispose of household hazardous waste.

This is not a complete list of deconstruction services and is provided for information purposes only. StopWaste is not endorsing or recommending these businesses.

When organic materials such as wood and cardboard break down in landfills, they produce methane, which is 20 times more potent as a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide. Landfills account for 34% of methane emissions in the United States, so reducing the amount of waste sent to landfills can significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Recycling 1 ton of cardboard boxes, for example, reduces greenhouse gas emissions by the equivalent of 4 tons of carbon dioxide.

Deconstructing instead of demolishing a 2,000 sq. ft. house reduces greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to taking three cars off the road for a year. (Source: ReBuilding Center)

Learn more:

In 2017, StopWaste analyzed 2,000 construction and demolition waste management plans from five Alameda County cities for the years 2014-2017.

The data analysis included tons generated (disposed + recycled), project square footage, and project and building types. This table provides estimates for construction and demolition waste generation based on building and project type.

C&D waste generation estimates for the 10 most common building/project types in Alameda County1

Building TypeProject TypeMedian lb/sq ftLow end2 lb/sq ftHigh end3 lb/sq ft
CommercialDemolition/Deconstruction10.01.543.5
CommercialNew Construction14.82.659.3
CommercialRemodel6.91.920.1
CommercialRepair/Reconstruction10.01.543.5
CommercialTenant Improvement3.81.211.6
Multi-FamilyNew Construction6.03.610.8
OfficeTenant Improvement2.31.06.1
ResidentialNew Construction7.33.914.6
ResidentialRemodel24.69.067.4
RetailTenant Improvement6.41.717.6

Notes: 1 Data collected from five Alameda County cities, utilizing Waste Management Plan data. 2 20th percentile. 3 80th percentile.