The construction industry is one of the largest producers of pollutants and waste globally in its daily operations. To put this into perspective, in the mid-1990s in Great Britain, construction processes generated nearly 10 million tons of post-industrial waste. Approximately a decade ago, over 3.5 billion new bricks were used annually, while around 2.5 billion were demolished; of that total, only about 140 million were reused, with the rest sent to landfills.
When we contrast the low percentage of recovered construction materials with those sent to landfills at the end of their life cycle—or consider the volume of raw materials that must be extracted to produce new ones—a major challenge becomes clear: the architectural, material, and construction sectors are contributing massively to waste generation and the depletion of non-renewable natural resources.
