Sustainable Home Renovation Tips That Reduce Waste

Key Takeaways

• Construction and demolition debris is one of the largest waste streams in the country, so how you remodel matters as much as what you remodel.
• Residential deconstruction saves up to 80 percent of a home's materials for reuse, while traditional demolition sends nearly all of it to a landfill.
• Buying reclaimed lumber, doors, cabinets, and fixtures cuts waste on both ends of the supply chain and usually costs less than buying new.
• Keeping existing framing, floors, and cabinets in place is the cheapest waste reduction strategy available to any homeowner.
• Sorting debris on site into metal, wood, drywall, and concrete raises recycling rates and lowers hauling fees.

Renovation Waste Is a Bigger Problem Than Most Homeowners Realize

The dumpster parked in the driveway is the part of a remodel nobody photographs. It’s also where the environmental cost of the project lives. The EPA estimates that the United States generated 600 million tons of construction and demolition debris in 2018, more than twice the amount of household trash produced that year.

The good news for anyone planning a green home renovation: The biggest reductions come from decisions made before the first crew shows up.

Choose Residential Deconstruction Over Demolition

This is the single highest-impact choice on the list. Demolition treats a house as debris. Deconstruction treats it as inventory. Trained crews take a structure apart by hand, and what comes out typically includes:

• Framing lumber, joists, and beams, often old-growth wood no longer sold at retail
• Hardwood flooring, trim, and interior and exterior doors
• Kitchen cabinets, countertops, and working appliances
• Windows, roofing material, siding, and decking
• Plumbing and lighting fixtures

The ReUse People (TRP) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that has been doing this work since 1993. We’ve deconstructed more than 4,000 buildings and diverted over 400,000 tons of material from landfills.

The economics surprise people. Because TRP is a nonprofit, the materials you donate are appraised by an independent, IRS-qualified appraiser, and the resulting charitable deduction can exceed the added labor cost. In TRP's composite example of a 2,200-square-foot house, machine demolition costs the owner $19,900, while deconstruction nets out to $11,960 after tax benefits, a savings of nearly $8,000.

Deconstruction takes longer, usually about 10 days for an average home with a five-person crew, so build the schedule around it.

Buy Salvaged and Reclaimed Building Materials

Reuse centers, architectural salvage yards, and TRP's own warehouse sell the material other projects gave up, often at a fraction of retail. Before you order anything new, check for:

• Solid-core doors and old-growth framing lumber, which are denser and straighter than most new stock
• Reclaimed wood for flooring, shelving, mantels, and accent walls, with far less embodied carbon than new lumber
• Vintage fixtures such as clawfoot tubs, farmhouse sinks, and period lighting
• Overstock tile, brick, and stone left over from other jobs

Repair and Refinish Before You Replace

The greenest material is the one already in your walls. Try refinishing hardwood floors instead of tearing them out, reglazing a tub or sink rather than hauling it away, or rebuilding window sashes and adding storm windows instead of replacing whole units.

Preserving existing structures sits near the top of the EPA's list of best practices for a reason.

Sort What’s Left, and Build for the Next Renovation

Separate bins for metal, clean wood, drywall, cardboard, and concrete recover value that mixed loads destroy. Ask your hauler about C&D recycling rates before you sign.

Then build the new work so it can come apart someday:

• Use screws and bolts instead of construction adhesive
• Choose durable materials worth recovering later
• Keep connections and assemblies visible and accessible

Ready to keep your project out of the landfill? Explore residential deconstruction with TRP.

TRP reduces the solid waste stream and changes the way the built environment is renewed by salvaging building materials and distributing them for reuse. Learn more about our commercial and residential deconstruction services, explore our salvaged materials for sale, or donate today to support our work!