1. Green Manufacturing

“Green manufacturing involves making manufactured products and the manufacturing process safer for the environment and human health” (Cha).

What does this mean?

Regarding Products

• The use of less toxic or nontoxic materials

• Post-consumer recycled content (containing materials that consumers have used and recycled)

• Locally sourced materials (ex. Stone and granite from local quarries rather than imported from around the globe)

• Products manufactured and used in renewable and energy efficient systems (ex. Gearboxes used in small-scale wind turbines)

Regarding Process

• Improving operational energy efficiency

• Onsite recycling

• Employee occupational health and safety

2. Deconstruction

“Deconstruction is the process of carefully dismantling and removing useable materials from structures for reuse, recycling, and waste management” (Cha).

Examples and Advantages:

• Maximizes the recovery of valuable building materials for reuse and recycling

• Minimizes the amount of waste destined for landfills

• Alternative to demolition

Susquehanna project experimenting with “paneling,” where large sections of row houses are removed intact for disassembly and reuse.

Unique architectural features such as a corner turret and radiators are retrieved from urban row houses and sold through local Susquehanna architectural salvage business. Images courtesy of OSWER Innovation Project Success Story: Deconstruction

“Atypical 13,300 square foot commercial demolition project generates over 155 pounds per square foot or over 2 million pounds of waste;2 building-related projects in the U.S. alone generate an estimated 164 million tons of construction and demolition (C&D) material every year. Approximately 40%of this material is reused, recycled, or sent to waste-to-energy facilities, while 60 percent is sent to C&D landfills”One Cleanup, Design for the Environment, and U.S. EPA. 2007. Draft Final Report, Waste and Materials Flow-Benchmark Sector Report: Beneficial Use of Secondary Materials—Construction and Demolition Materials.

3. Reuse

“This subsector redistributes unwanted yet perfectly usable materials and equipment, including items from demolished structures” (Cha).

Advantages

• Keeps goods and materials out of the waste stream

• Advances source reduction

• Preserves the ‘embodied energy’ originally used to manufacture an item

• Creates less air and water pollution than making a new product or recycling

• Saves money in purchase and disposal costs

4. Recycling

5. Remanufacturing