salvaged building materials
Using salvaged building materials wherever possible is going to contribute greatly to any given building’s green credentials. There are some cost impediments to using salvaged building materials as virgin timber is cheaper than salvaged timber because of the immense subsidies given to the virgin timber industry, but the environmental costs will be considerably cheaper. Re-use simply makes good sense: a recent study concluded that 30 percent of a two story apartment building was salvageable by volume which would go a long way to reducing the 136 million tons of construction and demolition waste generated by American homes and businesses each year.
