US EPA Sustainable Materials Management Strategic Plan Includes C&D
One of the more interesting—and important–developments for the Construction & Demolition industry is its inclusion in the US EPA’s Sustainable Materials Management Strategic Plan (link to the plan at the bottom).
Four objectives identified in the plan are:
- Decrease the disposal rate, which includes source reduction, reuse, recycling and prevention;
- Reduce the environmental impacts of materials across their life cycle;
- Increase socio-economic benefits; and,
- Increase the capacity of state and local governments, communities and key stakeholders to adopt and implement SMM policies, practices and incentives.
Further, the EPA set “The Built Environment” as a Strategic Priority, recognizing the tremendous contributions our industry can make toward helping the EPA achieve its objectives. In focusing on the Built Environment, the EPA has established three Action Areas that “…outline how EPA will work to implement a life cycle, systems-based approach to address the full range of impacts associated with materials management…”
With the four objectives and the Built Environment as a priority comes support and additional opportunities for C&D materials recovery. Good plans are generally not without a means of measuring performance and progress and you’ll find that in there as well.
We are pleased to see national support of the C&D industry and an increased focus in measurement and quantifying the benefits of our industry. Certification with the CORR Protocol will provide assurances of C&D recycling rates that will allow the US EPA to better quantify the environmental benefits of your C&D recycling contributions.
I strongly encourage you peruse the Strategic Plan and read more about how the US EPA Sustainable Materials Management Strategic Plan supports our industry.
Best regards,
Stephen
Reprinted, in part, from my prior post in the May ’16 CDRA Newsletter
