OPINION: Upcycling Construction waste

An analysis released by the South African department of Environmental Affairs, titled “South African State of Waste”, confirmed that waste from construction and demolition makes up 8,3% of the total waste in the country, and most of this waste ends up in landfill sites. Nancy Ronoh shares her views on repurposing construction waste.

One of my favourite shows on Netflix is “The World’s Most Extraordinary Homes”, an ode to the world’s most unique homes and brilliant building techniques. In season 3 they explored homes unique to each country. The “Collage House” in India, was particularly interesting as the owner chose to build his facade out of doors and windows salvaged from recently demolished buildings around Mumbai. In a different episode a home in America used the wings of an old Boeing aero plane as its roof. A little bit closer to home,”27 Boxes”, a shopping center located in Melville uses shipping containers as its primary structure. I remembered these ideas recently, while involved in refurbishment projects. Where does all the stuff the contractor removes go? More importantly, why can it not be repurposed on other projects?

Upcycling is defined in the Merriam Webster, dictionary as the process of recycling something in a way that gives it higher value. In the context of this article, it is giving something renewed functionality and purpose. Upcycling differs from recycling, as upcycling usually involves reusing the material in its original form. In a world where we are looking into affordability on projects, green rated buildings and more lean building techniques upcycling should be at the forefront of design. An analysis released by the South African department of Environmental Affairs, titled “South African State of Waste”, confirmed that waste from construction and demolition makes up 8,3% of the total waste in the country, and most of this waste ends up in landfill sites. The 3 biggest materials that come out of construction sites are concrete, bricks, wood and drywalling.

The UN’s sustainable development goals calls on member nations, of which South Africa is one, to be more environmentally conscious in their development practices. Goal no. 9 mandates that the world must aim for greener and more sustainable infrastructure; and no. 12 calls us to the apply more sustainable production and consumption practices. Through more upcycling the construction sector can achieve both goals by keeping products in circulation and out of landfill sites. A former colleague of mine took tile offcuts, formwork and timber from the various construction sites he was involved in and used this to complete the internal finishes in his apartments. The offcut tiles made a beautiful mosaic pattern, and the formwork made a surprisingly rustic looking kitchen countertop. My colleague succeeded in driving down the cost of his project and achieved a unique look at his properties. These are the direct benefits of upcycling. Especially on low-cost housing projects, where cost effective techniques must be applied, upcycling offers a creative and viable alternative to new materials. A different strategy for upcycling outlined in an e-publication, titled “Go Green with Aarhus” explores the idea of “design to dismantle”, in short, any building should be designed and constructed so that once it has reached the end of its life span, it can be demolished or disassembled in a way that allows one to preserve the individual parts. Precast elements if used correctly, offer this option.

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In a research paper titled” Challenges and opportunities for scaling up upcycling businesses” by J. Singh (2019), the economic benefits of upcycling are highlighted. One major challenge with upcycling is consistency of supply, because one is reliant on the removal of items from a finite source (there is a limit on how much material comes out of a building, and also a limited number of projects in a locality), it is not always easy to predict how much of any material will become available. For clients, the risk is that the products often do not come with warranties, guarantees or maintenance periods.

In conclusion upcycling offers many benefits for entities involved in small scale construction projects, and low-cost housing developments. However, it is still a challenge to implement on larger scale commercial projects. There is also need for more formal processes to regulate the quality and integrity of upcycled materials. However, as construction professionals, we should consider this a promising solution to wastage, and material cost challenges on our projects.

This Hardhat Opinion was written by Nancy Ronoh a Project Manager in the Consulting Sector.

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