REBRI Waste reduction: Demolition (PDF)

This guide is part of the REBRI series developed to encourage and assist everyone involved in the construction and demolition (C&D) industry to reduce waste disposal to landfill and cleanfill.

In the long term, design for deconstruction is a key solution to reducing waste at the end of a building’s life. In the shorter term, however, reducing building waste by focusing on dismantling and deconstruction rather than demolition will help achieve this objective.

This guide provides good practice guidance to:

• demolition firms
• building owners
• builders and developers.

The aims of this guide are to:

• help maximise the amount of material recovered at the end of a building’s life (and reduce waste to landfill and cleanfill)
• foster environmental awareness among those involved in building demolition and deconstruction.

The guidelines cover:

• planning for deconstruction
• initial assessment of site and building
• reusable and recyclable building materials
• deconstruction scheduling
• monitoring and recording procedures
• tendering and contracts
• setting up a waste minimisation system
• principles for deconstruction and dismantling
• on-site sorting and storage of materials
• when deconstruction is complete
• marketing and external accreditation
• training staff and subcontractors
• links, resources, and information.