Environment and Climate Change Canada’s Waste Reduction and Management Division commissioned Delphi and Dillon Consulting to quantify the economic and environmental impacts from increased construction and demolition (C&D) waste diversion in Canada, with a focus on four materials – wood, metal, drywall and concrete. The study also outlined existing systems and stakeholders involved in recovering C&D materials and reintegrating them in the economy, and existing secondary markets that support these efforts.
Construction is an important economic sector for Canada, generating $141 billion in GDP in 2020. However, waste diversion in the sector has remained limited in the past 10 years, with high volumes of end-of-life material disposed in landfills. This represents a considerable loss of economic value (materials that could be processed and resold by circular businesses), low resource productivity (since materials could have gone on to secondary, tertiary applications for decades), increasing pressure on solid waste management systems, and missed opportunities to reduce the embodied carbon in the construction supply chain through use of secondary material.
The information and analysis presented by Delphi and Dillon Consulting will help inform improvements to re-use and recycling rates in the sector and identify new circularity pathways for C&D waste.
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