The State regulates Construction and Demolition Waste (CDW) — its generation, recycling and reuse — and collects all data on CDW. There is no city source of data for CDW. For the city to innovate policy with respect to CDW by leveraging its capital program as one way to close material loops, which would generate environmental sustainability and financial sustainability benefits, understanding where CDW goes from the demolition process through the recycling process is the most important single step.

The City is always building. As a part of this growth, materials are brought to and from private and public construction sites. Movement of CDW components, such as concrete, soil and gypsum, represents a significant portion of the waste and transit associated with construction in NYC. Currently, this material is reused in an untracked manner between project sites or sent to landfills. Opportunities exist for City agencies to reuse CDW components between sites for a myriad of benefits. NYS Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) is responsible for the state’s solid waste management regulations, which apply to all CDW consisting of materials from the construction and demolition of buildings and infrastructure. These regulations apply to all local governments in New York State, including New York City. CDW can be separated on construction sites into various components, such as concrete, steel, glass, gypsum, and soil, all of which can be recycled and reused as permitted by the regulations.

The environmental benefits of closing the CDW loops include expanded reuse of CDW with fewer emissions from trucking new materials into the city from outside the metropolitan area and reduction of transportation of materials to landfills for disposal and associated reductions in environmental impacts due to reduction in landfills use and transportation of materials to landfills; and financial benefits include reduction in construction costs due to the reuse of some CDW components and reduction of transportation costs due to transport from outside the city for new materials. In addition, the ability for CDW recycling to move as a resource toward higher value uses, with the aid of engineering technology, also depends on understanding the pathways of CDW as a resource.

The CDW Working Group needs to understand from available NYS DEC the CDW material flows in this region—where, when, how much and what type of CDW materials are available for reuse—which is the basis for the research question underlying this project. What are the patterns of CDW generation, processing and recycling within the City (Region 1) and what recycled CDW materials are available for reuse on construction projects within the City (Region 1) to help New York City close material loops by leveraging its capital program? Developing a data visualization of the CDW waste flows from generation to recycling is critical for the CDW Working Group as it moves ahead with its goal of increasing reuse of recycled CDW elements on New York City’s capital projects and thus helping to close material loops. While LEED and Envision frameworks do contain credits for re-use of recycled CDW, there is no systemic citywide plan to support efforts in these areas, including economic and market efforts, so that more CDW ends up in landfills than might be feasible under the right citywide supportive plan.

This is a volunteer opportunity for students to use their skills for the social good.

Project Owners

Town+Gown is a city-wide action research program, resident at NYC DDC, that provides research resources for practitioners and academics in the built environment to develop and facilitate research projects, including experiential learning engagements with graduate students. Town+Gown will help work with the student team and the CDW Working Group, as client, on this project to bridge the academic practitioner divide and ensure this project is successful for both the student team and the CDW Working Group.

The CDW Working Group consists of representatives from NYC DOT, NYC DEP, NYC DDC and NYS DEC who are working toward expanding the recycling and reuse envelope to include CDW by leveraging the City’s capital program to close CDW materials loops within the city.

Full details can be found here.

Project timeline

  • Earliest starting date: 10/01/2020
  • End date: 01/01/2021
  • Number of hours per week of research expected during Fall 2020: ~10
  • Project is ongoing and will be reviewed for future directions at the end of the semester

Candidate requirements

  • All students should have excellent data analytic skills, since the bulk of the data is historical, and geospatial data analytic skills, and an interest in environmental sustainability and the need to increase reuse of CDW would be helpful.
  • Student eligibility: freshman, sophomore, junior, senior, master’s
  • International students: eligible