Residential Construction Waste Management Demonstration and ...

STRATEGIES FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF RECYCLED-CONTENT BUILDING
MATERIALS AND PACKAGING WASTE REDUCTION
The objective of this task was to explore with selected manufacturers strategies for the
development of recycled-content building products and reduction in packaging waste. The
Research Center presented and discussed these concepts at the three workshops, in follow-up
meetings with selected manufacturers at the 1995 Annual Home Builders Show in Houston, and
in correspondence on packaging waste reduction with selected manufacturers. In addition, results
from an informal questionnaire sent to the manufacturing community by the Research Center
under a related project were assessed to identify practices and opportunities for recycled-content
building materials.
Development of Recycled-Content Building Materials
As part of an effort to determine the level and nature of manufacturer interest in recycled-content
building product development, the Research Center sent out an informal questionnaire to over
1,740 building product manufacturers. The questionnaire was designed to solicit comments and
concerns regarding the development of a resource-efficient product labeling program that would
certify the recycled content, recyclability , or design for disassembly of the respondent’s products
(A copy of the full report on the questionnaire is contained in Appendix D). 14 Key points from
the results of this questionnaire follow.
Many manufacturers view a focus on the recycled content of building products as
inadequate in encouraging builders to select more resource-efficient materials. The
respondents listed such issues as embodied energy, life cycle assessment, and resource
renewability as equally important in the improved resource efficiency and environmental
sensitivity of home building.
The related issues of product performance and quality often surface with regard to
recycled-content building products. Manufacturers are concerned about unwarranted
perceptions of compromised quality, unfair competition from substandard recycledcontent
products, and a link between performance certification and recycled-content
certification.
Broad-based interest in featuring recycled content may be limited to certain
manufacturing sectors such as insulation and plastic decking/fencing materials. In other
sectors, manufacturers are poised to feature their recycled-content products if they feel
a market advantage is clearly indicated.
14 This industry questionnaire was conducted as a joint effort under Task 1.4 of this project and the NAHB
Research Center. The Research Center has been considering the development of a recycled-content/recyclability
labeling program in response to considerable builder and manufacturing interest, generated in particular from the
Resource Conservation Research House project. Although at least three directories and one labeling program of
this nature already exist, none is national in scope and service to the building industry as a whole is limited,