Virginia Tech
OP-19: Construction and Demolition Waste Diversion

The Virginia Tech Climate Action Commitment (VTCAC) point #6 states “Virginia Tech will improve the sustainability of its built environment by achieving LEED Silver certification or better for all eligible and applicable new buildings and major renovations.” See: http://www.it.vpas.vt.edu/docs/sust/op18/PPM262rev1.pdf

Maximizing the amount of construction and demolition materials recycled on a construction site provides valuable LEED points. General constructions are maintaining recycling data throughout the duration of the project and are providing that information to our project managers on a period basis.

In addition, the VTCAC point #8 states “Virginia Tech will minimize waste and achieve a 50% by 2020.” Using the Commonwealth of Virginia Department of Environmental Quality formula, the university achieved recycling rates in calendar years 2011, 2012 and 2013 of 40.1%, 44.13% and 43.2% respectively. To the maximum extent possible, construction and demolition materials are captured and reused on campus, recycled, and otherwise kept out of the local landfill. For calendar year 2013 15,100.11 tons of construction and demolition material (concrete, masonry, wood, metal and miscellaneous) was kept out of the landfill. See CY 2013 Recycling Rate Report, Section IIC, page 3:
http://www.it.vpas.vt.edu/docs/sust/op17/CalendarYear2013CommonwealthOfVirginiaDEQLocalityRecyclingRate.pdf

University Policy 5505 “Campus Energy, Water, and Waste Reduction” Revision 2 was approved by the Vice President for Administrative Services on February 28, 2011. One key feature of this revision was to add a new section for waste reduction and include it in the title. Revision 2 tasked the Facilities Services Department to develop a Comprehensive Waste Management Plan for Virginia Tech (CWMP-VT). To view University Policy 5505 “Campus Energy, Water, and Waste Reduction” please see: http://www.policies.vt.edu/5505.pdf

The Facilities Services Department charged the Office of Energy and Sustainability (OES) to lead the development of the CWMP-VT. OES created a Waste Management Task Force which was augmented by stakeholders from campus activities that produce the majority of solid waste. The CWMP-VT was adopted July 15, 2011. Section 6.1 states: “University Design and Construction requires general contractors to capture and recycle material when possible during new construction and major renovation projects. Tonnage of material recycled is reported on a quarterly basis to the Office of Energy and Sustainability by the University Design and Construction Project Manager.” To view the Comprehensive Waste Management Plan for Virginia Tech, adopted July 15, 2011, see: http://facilities.vt.edu/documents/sustainability/unlinked/Comprehensive_Waste_Mangement_Plan_Virginia_Tech_7_15_2011_Final.pdf