We are currently working on a multiphase development in which the foundation of one building is being completed while another is being demolished. As of right now, the concrete walls and foundation from the one project is being crushed on site and used as fill on the other. We have picked through the reference guide and applicable CIRs but have found nothing that definitively says how we need to account for this material (either as building re-use or recycled content).
The question is, because we are not targeting MRc3 (Building re-use), can we choose to describe the material as a pre-consumer recycled material OR, because the source of the material happens to be a former building, do we need to consider the material as part of Building reuse and therefore not applicable to our recycled content calculations for MRc4?
Joseph Ford, AIA
ArchitectRSP Architects Ltd.
17 thumbs up
November 5, 2013 - 8:30 pm
Kim,
Once you demolish the building you aren't doing Building Reuse. Once you crush the concrete you have a 100% post-consumer recycled content building material.
I had an analogous situation on a past project where we processed concrete and masonry demolition debris on site into fill and pavement base for a new building on the same site. We assigned a dollar value to the fill/base by having the contractor price what it would have cost to have new material trucked to the site.
Since the distance to the project site was zero it also qualified as Regional Material. Also note that if you are processing demolition debris on site you are diverting it from a landfill, so it contributes towards Construction Waste Management as well.
We had no issues at all with any of these approaches when they were reviewed.