Recyclability
Recyclability measures a material’s capacity to be used as a
resource in the creation of new products. Steel is the most
commonly recycled building material, in large part because it
can be easily separated from construction debris by magnets.
Many building materials that cannot be reused in their entirety
can be broken down into recyclable components. Often, it is
the difficulty of separating rubble from demolition that prevents
more materials from being recycled. Once separated,
glass is very easy to recycle: post-consumer glass is commonly
used as a raw material in making window glass, ceramic tile,
and brick. Concrete, unlike steel and glass, cannot be re-formed
once set, but it can be ground up and used as aggregate in new
concrete or as road bedding. Currently, very little concrete
and glass from site demolition is recycled because of the
difficulty in separating these materials from construction debris.
Plastics alone are easy to recycle but are often integrated into
other components which makes separation difficult or impossible.
Plastic laminates are generally adhered to plywood or
particleboard, making these wood products also hard to
recycle. Some foam insulation can be reformed, but the
majority cannot. Foam insulation can, like glass, be used as
filler in concrete and roadbeds.