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Deconstruction vs. Demolition: An evaluation of carbon and energy impacts

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Deconstruction vs. Demolition:
An evaluation of carbon and energy impacts from
deconstructed homes in the City of Portland
Submitted to: City of Portland Bureau of Planning and Sustainability (BPS)
By: Andey Nunes, Jordan Palmeri and Simon Love
March 2019

DEQ Materials
Management
700 NE Multnomah St.
Suite 600
Portland, OR 97232
Phone: 503-229-5696
800-452-4011
Fax: 503-229-5850
Contact: Jordan Palmeri
www.oregon.gov/DEQ

DEQ is a leader in
restoring, maintaining and
enhancing the quality of
Oregon’s air, land and
water.

State of Oregon Department of Environmental Quality 1

 This report prepared by:

Oregon Department of Environmental Quality

700 NE Multnomah Street, Suite 600
Portland, OR 97232
1-800-452-4011
www.oregon.gov/deq

Contact:
Jordan Palmeri
503-229-6766
[email protected]

The authors would like to acknowledge the significant contributions

of Shawn Wood (City of Portland) and Bryce Jacobson (Oregon Metro)

DEQ can provide documents in an alternate format or in a language other than English upon request. Call
DEQ at 800-452-4011 or email [email protected].

State of Oregon Department of Environmental Quality 1

Table of Contents

Executive Summary ...................................................................................................................................... 4

1. Introduction and Background.................................................................................................................... 6
1.1 Background ......................................................................................................................................... 6
1.1.1 Portland’s Deconstruction Ordinance .......................................................................................... 6
1.2 Impetus for this Study ......................................................................................................................... 6
1.3 Definitions........................................................................................................................................... 6
2. Project Methodology ................................................................................................................................. 8
2.1 Goal and Scope ................................................................................................................................... 8
2.1.1 Goal .............................................................................................................................................. 8
2.1.2 Objectives .................................................................................................................................... 8
2.1.3 System Boundary ......................................................................................................................... 8
2.2. Project Dataset ................................................................................................................................... 9
2.2.1 Dataset Description ...................................................................................................................... 9
2.2.2 Data Collection .......................................................................................................................... 10
2.2.3 Data Cleaning............................................................................................................................. 10
2.2.4 Project Workflow ....................................................................................................................... 11
2.3 Assumptions...................................................................................................................................... 12
2.3.1 Material Assumptions ................................................................................................................ 12
2.3.2 End-of-Life Assumptions ........................................................................................................... 14
2.3.3 Wood Products – biogenic carbon and energy offset assumptions ............................................ 15
2.3.4 Material Transport...................................................................................................................... 16
2.3.5 Worker Transport and Equipment Use ...................................................................................... 17
4. Results ..................................................................................................................................................... 18
4.1 Material Quantities............................................................................................................................ 18
4.2 Carbon and Energy Impacts .............................................................................................................. 20
4.2.1 Total Carbon and Energy Impacts per Project ........................................................................... 20
4.2.2 Individual Material Impacts ....................................................................................................... 24
4.3 Sensitivity Analysis .......................................................................................................................... 28
4.4 Correlation to House Size and Age ................................................................................................... 29
5. Discussion and Interpretation.................................................................................................................. 31

State of Oregon Department of Environmental Quality 2

 5.1 City-Scale Impacts ............................................................................................................................ 31
5.2 Policy Implications ........................................................................................................................... 31
5.3 Variation in Salvage Quantities ........................................................................................................ 31
5.4 Reuse ................................................................................................................................................. 32
5.5 Other Impact Categories ................................................................................................................... 32
6. Limitations .............................................................................................................................................. 33
6.1 Data Quality ...................................................................................................................................... 33
7. Conclusions ............................................................................................................................................. 34
8. Recommendations for Future Work........................................................................................................ 35
9. References ............................................................................................................................................... 36
Appendix A: Material Assumptions ..................................................................................................... 37
Appendix B: Additional Figures and Tables ........................................................................................ 40

State of Oregon Department of Environmental Quality 3

Executive Summary
In October 2016, in an effort to reduce waste, support material reuse, and reduce environmental impacts
of demolition, the City of Portland, Oregon, enacted an ordinance requiring manual deconstruction of
residential homes built in 1916 or earlier. This study analyzes the material quantity data from the first 36
deconstruction projects in Portland to measure carbon and energy impacts. The carbon and energy
impacts were also calculated for a hypothetical scenario in which the same houses were mechanically
demolished.
The goal of this project is to calculate the carbon and energy impacts of deconstruction and demolition of
single-family houses in Portland, Oregon. The results will allow the City of Portland to measure the
effectiveness of their deconstruction policy in achieving climate and energy goals.
Results indicate the following:

• The sample of 36 homes had an average age of 112 years and average size of 1,177 square feet.
• The average deconstruction of a single-family home in Portland, Oregon, yielded 39,362 pounds
of material (excluding foundation), of which 10,587 pounds (27 percent) was salvaged. The vast
majority of salvaged material by weight was softwood lumber, in the form of framing lumber,
structural beams, and sheathing (shiplap on walls and plank subfloor). This material made up over
85 percent of the total weight of salvaged materials.
• The average deconstructed home showed a carbon benefit of 13.8 MTCO2e while demolition
showed a carbon benefit of 6.2 MTCO2e. Deconstruction yields a net carbon benefit of
approximately 7.6 metric tons of CO2eq per house compared to demolition. The carbon benefits
are mainly attributed to the avoided production of new materials and the continued sequestration
of biogenic carbon in the wood.
• Landfilling wood does result in a benefit for carbon storage but reuse of wood yields a benefit
almost twice as large.
• When considering biogenic carbon as an emissions source and sink, burning wood for energy
emits more carbon than it offsets when replacing natural gas as a fuel in industrial boilers.
• Although the end-of-life fate of recoverable wood greatly influenced the relative carbon benefits
of the deconstruction scenario, sensitivity analyses revealed that deconstruction will always have
a carbon benefit over demolition even with extreme swings in the market for recoverable wood.
• Results are less clear when looking at primary energy demand. The average deconstructed home
showed an energy benefit of 89 GJ, while demolition showed a benefit of 115 GJ, a difference of
26 GJ. Based on DEQ surveys of recovered and disposed materials, much of the clean
recoverable wood (56 percent) is used as a fuel that offsets natural gas use in industrial boilers
regionally. This pathway yields a large energy credit, which is contrasted by this pathway being a
net emitter of carbon.
• For energy impacts, the rate of wood incineration for energy recovery, which offsets the use of
natural gas, highly influenced the results. A decrease in the wood recovery rate from the current
56 percent to 30 percent would make the energy benefits of both the deconstruction and
demolition scenarios approximately equal.
• Material transport, worker transport and equipment use on site was analyzed in detail. Results
indicate that the impacts were inconsequential compared to much larger impacts of material
reuse, recovery and disposal.

State of Oregon Department of Environmental Quality 4

 • There was no correlation between salvage quantity and house age. Correlation with house age
could become more pronounced if deconstruction is applied to newer houses that contain lower
quality/value material and are physically more challenging to deconstruct due to adhesives.
• Although there was little correlation between the quantity of material salvaged and house size, the
study did find that salvage quantities were more closely tied with specific contractors, indicating
some contractors were able to salvage a higher percentage of material per house. Among more
experienced contractors, salvaged rates were as high as 37 percent by weight and yielded a net
carbon benefit as high as 10 MT CO2e/average home. As the deconstruction industry matures, we
may see average salvage rates rise slightly.
One limitation of the study was the use of regionally adjusted material composition data for the dropbox
materials. Although exact weights of dropbox materials were known, the exact recovery or disposal of
those materials was assumed using regionally adjusted averages. Considering the high influence of
recoverable wood on the study results, future work would benefit from a more detailed account of the
recovery and disposal fates of dropbox materials. Additionally, an investigation into the reused materials
market would give insight into the true amounts of material being reused, what it is used for, and what
that material is replacing. This latter point is a challenging issue, and more data would help to provide
evidence for the environmental credits applied to the avoided production of new materials used in this
study.
The City of Portland was the first city in the country to require deconstruction of single-family homes.
This study provides a good snapshot of the environmental implications of a deconstruction policy for a
population of single-family homes. It is clear that increasing deconstruction can help the City of Portland
achieve carbon reduction goals. For energy, however, sensitivity analyses show that a slight change to the
end-of-life fate of wood waste can make both scenarios comparable to each other.
Finally, it should be noted that this study uses local variables and end-of-life scenarios specific to the
Portland metro region. Any conclusions or applicability to other areas of the country should be carefully
considered given differences in markets, building materials, and recovery rates.

State of Oregon Department of Environmental Quality 5

1. Introduction and Background
Deconstruction is the systematic dismantling of a structure that prioritizes salvage of materials for reuse
over recycling, recycles what is not reusable, and minimizes unusable/non-recyclable residuals that end
up in the landfill (City of Portland, 2016). This report summarizes a selection of the environmental
implications from the City of Portland’s Deconstruction Ordinance, which became effective on October
31, 2016. The policy requires that houses built in 1916 or earlier be fully deconstructed, i.e., dismantled
by hand, in order to maximize the amount of material salvaged and reused.

During the first full calendar year of the policy, over 100 detached single-family homes were permitted
for deconstruction. This evaluation focuses on the first 36 homes deconstructed, due to timing and data
availability. Using actual material quantity data from these homes, combined with established material
impact factors and regional assumptions, the global warming potential (GWP) and primary energy
demand impacts of each deconstruction project can be evaluated. Comparing this to the ‘business as
usual’ scenario in which all houses are mechanically demolished, an estimation of the net impact of the
ordinance can be produced.

1.1 Background
1.1.1 Portland’s Deconstruction Ordinance
In October 2016, in an effort to reduce waste, support material reuse, and reduce environmental impacts
of demolition, the City of Portland enacted an ordinance requiring manual deconstruction of residential
homes built in 1916 or earlier, or designated as a historic resource regardless of age. Approximately 30-35
percent (by weight) of the landfill bound waste in Portland is construction and demolition debris.
Deconstruction and material reuse provides an opportunity to reduce this waste and help offset the
environmental impacts of producing new materials.

1.2 Impetus for this Study

The City of Portland’s deconstruction ordinance provided an opportunity to collect material salvage
quantities on a large number of deconstruction projects. Combining these material quantities with a
selection of environmental impact factors allows the evaluation of the relative impacts of deconstruction
compared against mechanical demolition projects. Since the City of Portland, Oregon was the first city in
the United States to enact a residential deconstruction requirement, this project represents the first attempt
to quantify a selection of environmental impacts for a citywide policy related to building deconstruction.
In particular, the City of Portland set goals to increase the salvage and reuse of building materials in their
2015 Climate Action Plan. This analysis allows them to quantify the carbon impacts of their policy.
Oregon DEQ or others may use this information to help inform policy development in other locations.

1.3 Definitions
In this report, “deconstruction” or “decon” means the systematic dismantling of a structure, typically in
the opposite order it was constructed, in order to maximize the salvage of materials for reuse, in
preference over salvaging materials for recycling, energy recovery, or sending the materials to the
landfill. Typically, material is removed by hand and processed (e.g., de-nailing) on site. Salvaged material

State of Oregon Department of Environmental Quality 6

is transported to another location for resale, while non-salvageable material is placed into a dropbox and
taken to a material recovery facility (MRF).

“Demolition” or “demo” refers to the removal of a structure using mechanized equipment (such as a track
hoe). Typically, this process results in much more physical damage to materials, preventing salvage and
reuse. All material from a mechanical demolition is assumed to be removed by dropbox and taken to a
material recovery facility (MRF).

The foundation of the house is excluded from the definitions of deconstruction and demolition in this
analysis, as foundation removal is not typically carried out by deconstruction contractors. The process for
removing and disposing of a concrete foundation is identical between deconstruction and mechanical
demolition.

“Disposal” refers to deposition of materials in a solid waste landfill.

“Dropbox” refers to a receptacle on a deconstruction or demolition site into which non-salvaged materials
are placed, to be sent to a MRF.

“End of life” (EOL) refers to the processes that occur after the useful life of a component or material,
including deconstruction, reuse, demolition, recycling and disposal. In this study “EOL fate” is used to
refer to the final stages for each respective material.

“Materials recovery facility” (MRF, pronounced “murf”), is a permitted solid waste facility where solid
wastes or recyclable materials are sorted or separated. There are many types of MRFs, and in this study
this may refer to facilities that receive general solid waste, only construction and demolition waste, or
only wood waste.

“Non-Recoverable wood” refers to wood that cannot be reused, recycled or used for energy generation,
such as painted, treated, dirty or rotten wood.

“Recoverable wood” refers to wood that can be reused, recycled OR used for energy generation. Note that
recoverable does not necessarily imply reusable (e.g., a small broken piece of trim may only be suitable
for energy generation).

State of Oregon Department of Environmental Quality 7

2. Project Methodology
2.1 Goal and Scope

2.1.1 Goal
The goal of this project is to calculate the carbon and energy impacts of deconstruction and demolition of
single-family houses in Portland, Oregon. The results will allow the City of Portland to measure the
effectiveness of their deconstruction policy in achieving climate and energy goals. The results may be
used by DEQ and others to provide policy guidance and recommendations regarding deconstruction.

2.1.2 Objectives
The objective for this project was to produce a report outlining the findings of this study, including:
1. The average salvage percentage by weight across all projects.
2. The net environmental impacts of 36 residential home deconstruction projects in the City of
Portland from October 2016 to December 2017.
3. The average home net benefit of deconstruction versus mechanical demolition for the 36
deconstruction projects in the City of Portland.

2.1.3 System Boundary

Figure 1 below illustrates the different life cycle stages of a building product organized in so-called
“information modules,” as defined in the ISO 21930:2017 standard for sustainability in buildings (ISO,
2017). The system boundary of this study covers the end-of-life stages C1-C4 and potential net benefits
from reuse, recycling, or energy recovery in stage D. In this study, included within these stages are the
following processes:
C1: Deconstruction/Demolition

• Worker transport to/from worksite

• Equipment use on site
C2: Transport to waste processing or disposal

• Transport of salvaged material to reuse location

• Transport of dropboxes to MRFs
• Transport of sorted waste streams from MRFs to final EOL fate
C3: Waste Processing

• Energy and material use for recycling

• Fuel use at landfill (loaders, etc.)
• Emissions from energy recovery (combustion)
C4: Disposal of Waste

• Decomposition emissions in landfill (fugitive emissions)

• Biogenic carbon storage in landfill

State of Oregon Department of Environmental Quality 8

D: System Expansion

• Avoided production of new goods (for salvaged and recycled materials)

• Avoided natural gas used to generate steam for heat (wood energy recovery)

Figure 1: Life cycle stages of building products (ISO 21930:2017)

2.2. Project Dataset

2.2.1 Dataset Description

The study sample consists of 36 single-family homes deconstructed between November 2016 and
December 2017. Figure 2 shows the location of these homes. All but one of the projects were on the East
side of the Willamette River, which is representative of where the majority of demolitions were occurring
in the City of Portland in 2017. The data are a cross-sectional snapshot of all materials reported as
removed from the job site including salvage inventory, dropbox quantities and the destination recipient.

State of Oregon Department of Environmental Quality 9

Figure 2: Map of deconstruction dataset samples (36 projects included in the analysis)

The maximum, minimum, median and average house age and size for the houses included in this study
are shown in Table 1. The newest house in the study was 90 years old – outside of the ordinance year-
built threshold, but required to deconstruct because it was designated a historic resource. The houses were
typical for the Pacific Northwest – timber-framed, with Douglas fir being the predominant species used
for framing, sheathing (shiplap), subfloors and many finished floors.

Table 1: House age and size range for houses in sample

Minimum Maximum Median Average

House Age (years) 90 137 111 112
House Size (square feet) 640 2,341 1,132 1177

2.2.2 Data Collection

Project data from deconstruction contractors was collected by the City of Portland, and provided to DEQ
for the purposes of this report. Project-specific material data was received in the form of receipts from
dropbox and recycling haulers, pictures of handwritten sale or donation slips from salvage retailers, and
inventory forms and lists. This information was manually entered into a Microsoft Excel master
spreadsheet to facilitate DEQ internal data sharing, comments and cleaning.

2.2.3 Data Cleaning

After data entry, all items were assigned a material name, then inspected for accurate translation and entry
of necessary descriptive information such as the material physical dimensions and composition. Where
adequate material composition information or physical dimensions were not given, default

State of Oregon Department of Environmental Quality 10

dimensions/composition/material names were used. The appropriate reported or default unit dimensions
were used to generate a per-unit value, which was in turn multiplied by the reported quantity of the
material to obtain a line item subtotal, called the calculated quantity. This calculated value was converted
to units compatible with the impact factors, usually kilograms, and saved as converted quantity. This
converted quantity is the quantity used to determine the impacts associated with each material from each
project.

2.2.4 Project Workflow

All data cleaning, preparation, transformations, and analysis work was developed in the R language (R
v3.4.4) using RStudio (v1.1.383) and the tidyverse packages (v.1.2.1). Additional packages used and
verbose detail of software settings are included in the Deconstruction R project notebook files. For open
access purposes, all R data table outputs are saved as comma separated values (csv) file types, and all
input data files were exported from Excel spreadsheets to csv files prior to importing into R, and all R
Markdown notebooks are published as HTML files. The entire coding project was developed to be
reproducible and open-sourced for free public use and access. Figure 3 shows the workflow from the raw
contractor receipts to data input collection in Excel spreadsheets converted to csv files for upload,
cleaning, and analysis procedures in RStudio, which produce the final output and report. Detail of the
RStudio analysis routine is documented in detail in the R project notebooks and is summarized as follows.

Material salvage and disposal receipts were collected for each deconstruction project to estimate the total
material quantity by weight (kg). The material weights were then multiplied by their respective carbon
and energy impact factors, which were developed using life-cycle-analysis (LCA) best practices.
Transport of materials, transport of workers, and the use of on-site diesel heavy-machinery equipment
was also included in the development of the project impacts.

For each deconstruction project, two modeling scenarios were conducted: 1) actual salvage scenario, and
2) hypothetical mechanical demolition scenario that assumed the materials would go to their typical EOL
fates based on Metro regional recovery and disposal data. Net impacts for carbon and energy were then
determined on a project level between each scenario modeled.

Figure 3: Project workflow

State of Oregon Department of Environmental Quality 11

2.3 Assumptions

2.3.1 Material Assumptions

Because of the age of the houses, construction styles and material standards are different from today’s
construction. Much of the dimensional lumber salvaged from the projects differed from today’s
dimensions. A 2x4 piece of lumber would measure 1.5” x 3.5” using the current standard, but older
lumber could be the full 2”x4”, or somewhere in between. Sometimes the notation “rough cut” is used to
describe lumber that measures the actual dimensions of the name. Some of the contractor receipts in this
study did not specify whether their recorded dimensions were actual or nominal; when this was the case,
actual (rough cut) dimensions were assumed. This assumption could potentially make a large difference
to results: An 8-foot-long rough cut 2x4 is 768 cubic inches, while a nominal 2x4 (1.5”x3.5”) would be
504 cubic inches in volume, almost 35 percent smaller.

The assumed dimensions and weights for building components were compiled from literature, weighing
samples of salvaged building materials, and some professional judgement. These assumptions can be
found in Appendix A. Softwood density was sourced from a recent study of lumber properties for
salvaged wood coming from Portland-area deconstructed homes. The Oregon State University study
concluded that the average density of salvaged Doug-fir lumber from Portland-area homes is 530.7 kg per
cubic meter (Raphael Arbelaez, personal communication, October 2018). Hardwood density was assumed
to be 770 kg per cubic meter, the value for American white oak (International Timber, 2018).
Foundations were excluded from this study, as deconstruction typically does not include removal of the
foundation. Even if the foundation were included, there would be no difference between deconstruction
and demolition, as the process for breaking up and removing the foundation is the same in both scenarios.
Deconstruction contractors do not in practice record the relative quantities of each material type going
into dropboxes. The contents of these dropboxes were estimated using the average relative makeup of
construction and demolition (C&D) debris generated in the Portland metro area using 2016 DEQ Waste
Composition Study 1 and 2016 Material Recovery Survey 2 data and adjusted based on professional
judgement. The reason these figures were adjusted is that material coming from the demolition of old
homes is different from the average C&D waste generated in the Portland region, which is what DEQ’s
field surveys measure. For example, the average C&D waste stream contains more metal and cardboard
than was observed in the projects in this study. New construction generates cardboard—not residential
demolitions. Additionally, commercial construction and renovation generates more metal than residential
home demolitions. The average waste stream also contains higher amounts of roofing material than
typically seen on residential demolitions because a lot of roofing material is coming from reroofing
projects as opposed to demolitions. Overall, best professional judgement was used to adjust the dropboxes
to have a material composition that more accurately represents residential demolition sites.
Table 2 shows the total waste generated in 2016 for the material categories used in this study, and how
they were adjusted to better represent a residential demolition projects. The analysis treats the
composition of all drop boxes the same, which is discussed further in Section 6 “Limitations” in this
report.

1
https://www.oregon.gov/deq/mm/Pages/Waste-Composition-Study.aspx
2
https://www.oregon.gov/deq/mm/Pages/survey.aspx

State of Oregon Department of Environmental Quality 12

Table 2: Original and adjusted material category composition of dropboxes

Construction and Demolition (C&D) Waste Generated

Material Category
Total Oregon Metro 2016 Adjusted % based on best
(Portland area) % of total C+D professional judgement for
Generated Waste (tons) waste residential demos
Recoverable Wood 224,009 29% 41%
Non-Recoverable Wood 94,080 12% 23%
Metal 224,029 29% 5%
other 241,284 31% 31%

Additionally, dropbox material has been simplified into four categories: ‘recoverable wood,’ ‘non-
recoverable wood,’ ‘metal,’ and ‘other’. The specific components that fall into these categories are shown
in Table 3.
Table 3: Assumed material composition of dropboxes and materials included in each dropbox
category

Material Category % of Total Dropbox Material Name (components)

Weight
Recoverable Wood 41% Hardwood Flooring
Doors
Softwood lumber
Cedar shingles (unpainted)
Wood siding
Medium Density Fiberboard (MDF)
Plywood
Oriented Strand Board (OSB)(
Cabinets
Hardwood lumber
Non-Recoverable Wood 23% Any wood that did not fit in the above categories
(such as pressure-treated wood, painted wood such as
siding, and dirty, decayed or damaged wood)
Metal 5% Steel products
Aluminum siding
Cast iron
Light fixture
Other 31% Carpeting
Windows
Fiber cement siding
Ceramics
Plaster
Vinyl siding
Fiberglass tub
Concrete roofing

State of Oregon Department of Environmental Quality 13

2.3.2 End-of-Life Assumptions
Each material and each dropbox material category in this study, has an assigned end-of-life (EOL) fate;
i.e., a relative percentage split between the four possible EOL options (reuse, landfill, recycle, energy
recovery).
In the deconstruction scenario, it has been assumed that 100 percent of salvaged material is reused, and
displaces production of new product. The material that was removed from the site in dropboxes ( i.e., not
salvaged) has been categorized using the assumptions in Table 3 and an EOL fate has been assigned to
each of these categories (Table 4). These splits were based on Portland metro area recovery rates, using
2016 data from Oregon DEQ’s Material Recovery Survey combined with the 2016 Waste Composition
Study. The EOL fates represented in Table 4 are very representative of C+D waste generated at a regional
scale but not necessarily representative at a project level. For example, dropbox material coming from a
deconstruction site may be more easily recoverable than wood coming from a demolition site.
Demolition site debris is often mashed up with other materials and not easily separated on the floor of a
material recovery facility. In the absence of more detailed generation and recovery rates from dropboxes
from different sites, we used the same EOL compositions and fates for all dropboxes. A further discussion
around varying the EOL fates can be found in section 4.3—Sensitivity Analysis.

Table 4: End-of-life fates for dropbox material categories

Material Category % Recycling % Energy Recovery % Landfill

Recoverable Wood 0% 56% 44%
Non-Recoverable Wood 0% 0% 100%
Metal 93% 0% 7%
Other 0% 0% 100%

The impacts and offsets for each material, based on these respective EOL fates, was calculated using EPA
WARM v14, and the Ecoinvent 2.2 and GaBi v8.7 databases. The impact factors used have been included
in the accompanying Excel file to this report. The reason for ‘negative’ EOL carbon and energy impacts
(i.e., benefits) is due to the system expansion employed, in which recycled material and energy generated
from waste replaces virgin material and energy generated from fossil fuels, respectively. This benefit can
be larger than the emissions and energy consumed in the EOL process itself. In Portland, for example,
recovered clean wood is used for heat generation in paper and packaging plants, instead of natural gas. A
summary of these system expansion processes is given in Table 5.
Table 5: End-of-life fates and descriptions

End-of-Life Disposition Processes taken into account

Disposal in Landfill Impact of landfill operations, including carbon storage
and landfill gas flaring/utilization.
Recycling Impact of recycling process
Offset of virgin material by recycled material
Energy Recovery Impact of incineration (including carbon emissions)
Offset of applicable energy source (natural gas)
Reuse Offset of production of new material
Carbon stored in reused material (wood products only)

State of Oregon Department of Environmental Quality 14

2.3.3 Wood Products – biogenic carbon and energy offset assumptions
In this study, biogenic carbon (carbon related to the natural carbon cycle, such as that in wood), is
considered where emissions and sinks occur. The treatment of biogenic carbon depends on the EOL fate
of each relevant material. When wood is sent to landfill, much of the biogenic carbon (that which doesn’t
decompose into landfill gas) is stored long-term, and so a credit is given for this. In the case of energy
recovery, the carbon in the wood is released as CO2, and these emissions are counted, while the emissions
from the likely alternative source of energy (natural gas) are offset. The assumed carbon quantities stored,
release and offset per kg of wood are shown in Table 6a. Table 6b shows the energy released and offset
from EOL fates for wood. It should be noted that the energy recovery scenario assumed a 15 percent
moisture content in the wood and the reuse scenario used 10% moisture content based on best
professional judgement. Furthermore, all of the offsets used for energy recovery in this study were
replacing natural gas as a fuel. Besides landfilling, replacement of natural gas as a fuel in boilers is the
only current use of recovered wood waste (hogged fuel) in the Portland metro area. In other parts of
Oregon, wood waste is used to generate electricity, which is why the carbon values for electricity
replacement are listed in the Tables 6a and 6b below.
Table 6a: Carbon stored, released and offset from EOL fates for wood (kg CO2eq/kg wood)
EOL Fate Production Carbon Carbon Carbon Total Data Sources + Notes
avoidance stored released offset
offset
Reuse -0.20 -1.65 0 0 -1.85 Production offset calculated
with EPA WARM base
data, carbon storage from
calculated carbon storage
based on weight and
moisture content of wood
using EPA ECFR emissions
factors here
Landfill -1.20 0.07 -0.01 -1.15 EPA WARM v14
Energy 1.72 -1.25 0.47 GaBi v8.7 used for biomas
Recovery and natural gas process
(replace steam processes.
natural gas)
Energy 1.72 -0.37 1.35 GaBi v8.7 used for boiler
Recovery GHG releases. EPA WARM
(replace conversion efficiency used
electricity) for electricity, and Oregon
electricity mix used.

State of Oregon Department of Environmental Quality 15

Table 6b: Energy released and offset from EOL fates for wood (MJ per kg wood)
EOL Fate Production Landfill Electricity Natural Gas Total Data Sources + Notes
avoidance Energy Offset Offset
offset Use
Reuse -4.27 EPA WARM v14
Landfill 0.23 EPA WARM v14
Energy -20.96 -20.96 GaBi v8.7 used for
Recovery primary energy (MJ/MJ).
(replace Used EPA ECFR energy
natural gas) content converted to 15%
moisture content, assume
80% efficiency for wood
boiler and 85% efficiency
for natural gas boiler.
Energy -6.88 -6.88 GaBi v8.7 used for
Recovery primary energy (MJ/MJ).
(replace Use EPA ECFR energy
electricity) content as above, assumed
17.8% conversion
efficiency based on
WARM.

2.3.4 Material Transport

Table 7 shows the transport assumptions for all materials in the deconstruction and demolition scenarios.
The distances are round trip and represent an empty backhaul, which is representative for the Portland,
Oregon area. The transport impact factors were adjusted to account for the varying “utilization” of the
truck during the roundtrip transport legs. For all materials, the carbon and energy impacts of transporting
a specific weight of material the total distance listed in Table 7 below were calculated. Some transport
legs were volume limited, which means that multiple trips had to occur even though the total weight of
materials could have been supported by that truck classification. Total number of trips were assumed
based on an average of actual dropbox receipts, discussions with contractors, and best professional
judgement. The roundtrip distances were based on actual distances to salvage retail locations, material
recovery facilities, and landfills utilized in the Portland area. These distances were supplied by Oregon
Metro and Oregon DEQ. The carbon and energy impacts of each truck classification were taken from
Gabi 3 version 8.7.

3
Gabi Class 6 truck; Gabi class 8b truck

State of Oregon Department of Environmental Quality 16

Table 7: Transport assumptions for materials

Roundtrip Total
Distance Number of Distance Truck Classification
Activity Material Transport Leg (miles) Trips (miles (Gross Vehicle Weight)
Deconstruction salvaged items site to retail 22 2 44 6 (19,501 - 26,000lbs)
Deconstruction dropbox site to transfer 10 3 30 8b (33,000lbs+)
Deconstruction recoverable wood transfer to wood end use 114 1 114 8b (33,000lbs+ )
Deconstruction metal transfer to metal end use 120 1 120 8b (33,000lbs+)
Deconstruction disposed transfer to landfill 200 1 200 8b (33,000lbs+)
Demolition dropbox site to transfer 10 4 40 8b (33,000lbs+)
Demolition recoverable wood transfer to wood end use 114 1 114 8b (33,000lbs+)
Demolition metal transfer to metal end use 120 1 120 8b (33,000lbs+)
Demolition disposed transfer to landfill 200 1 200 8b (33,000lbs+)

2.3.5 Worker Transport and Equipment Use

The amount of labor and the use of heavy machinery are areas where deconstruction and mechanical
demolition differ. In general, deconstruction requires more workers, over a longer period of time, and
does not use heavy machinery. Mechanical demolition requires fewer workers, over a shorter period of
time and uses heavy machinery such as excavators. The assumptions for project duration, workers on site
per day, distance driven by each worker, and excavator use are given in Table 8 and were developed
based on best professional judgement of the project team. For passenger car transport, we assumed an
average of 24 miles per gallon and used the carbon and energy intensities from the Oregon Clean Fuels
Program (State of Oregon, 2017). The intensities used are 12.34 kgCO2e/gallon for gasoline and 157.02
MJ/gallon. The excavator impact factors were taken from Ecoinvent 3.3 database and are 20.1
kgCO2e/equipment hour and 293 MJ/equipment hour.
Table 8: Worker transport and heavy equipment use assumptions

Scenario Duration (days) Workers Distance driven Total Excavator/track

per worker, per Passenger Car hoe use (hours)
day (miles) Miles
Deconstruction 10 4 30 1200 0
Demolition 2 2 30 120 12

State of Oregon Department of Environmental Quality 17

4. Results
4.1 Material Quantities
Average material quantities per deconstruction project were calculated on a weight basis. On average, a
total of 39,362 lbs was removed from each site, with 10,587 lbs (26.9 percent) being salvaged (Figure 4).
The remaining 28,775 lbs of material was removed from the site via dropboxes and sent to MRFs.

Figure 4: Relative percentage by weight of material removed by dropbox and salvaged from an
average deconstructed home

Of the salvaged materials, roughly 85% (by weight) was softwood lumber, followed by 3.4 percent
plywood, 1.3% interior wood doors, and 1.25 percent steel products (Figure 5). This indicates that the
vast majority of material salvaged from the deconstruction projects was wood – specifically softwood
lumber. This aligns with the fact that most houses of this generation in Portland use Douglas fir for
framing, plank subfloor, and sheathing (shiplap under the siding). Douglas fir flooring was also common
during this time period.

State of Oregon Department of Environmental Quality 18

Figure 5: Quantity of materials salvaged from an average home

Using the broader dropbox material categories, the average quantity of each category was calculated on a
per-project basis (Figure 6). The largest of these categories was Recoverable Wood, with 11,798 lbs. This
indicates that there is a large amount of clean wood going to dropboxes with little economic value; this
could include pieces too small to sell, unconventional dimensions, or split/broken wood. This material is
suitable for energy recovery, but not for reuse.
The next category is Other, of which an average of 8,920 lbs per project was removed. This large figure is
due to non-salvageable material such as asphalt roofing, carpet, fiber cement and vinyl siding, any broken
ceramics, and damaged/broken windows. Non-Recoverable Wood (6,618 lbs) was the next largest
category, influenced by the fact that most houses in the study had painted wood siding which is not
suitable for reuse or energy recovery. The final and smallest category is metal (1,439 lbs), which includes
steel and cast iron plumbing, as well as aluminum siding and light fixtures.

State of Oregon Department of Environmental Quality 19

Figure 6: Estimated quantity (pounds) of material removed in dropboxes from an average
deconstruction project by material category

4.2 Carbon and Energy Impacts

4.2.1 Total Carbon and Energy Impacts per Project

The carbon (as Global Warming Potential (GWP), in its standard units of kg CO2eq) and energy impacts
(as primary energy demand, in MJ) of deconstruction and demolition have been calculated as for the
entire 36 projects, and in this section are presented as impacts per average project. These have been
broken down into five categories: material impacts, material transport to either a reuse location or a MRF,
material transport from MRF to end of life, worker transport, and equipment use on site. Material impacts
includes the impacts from the EOL processes for each material.
In Table 9, the average GWP impacts per project indicate that material impacts ( i.e., impacts from each
material’s EOL fate) account for the majority of the impact in both scenarios. Both scenarios show a
negative value for material impacts, meaning there is a net carbon benefit from these processes. This is
due to the large percentage of wood in the material stream: both scenarios benefit from the landfill carbon
storage of a large portion the wood in dropboxes, while the deconstruction scenario benefits from the

State of Oregon Department of Environmental Quality 20

reuse of the clean salvaged wood. Wood used for energy recovery does not show a carbon benefit, as the
amount of CO2eq released is larger than offset emissions. Material and worker transport make up a very
small fraction of the total impacts in both scenarios. These results are shown graphically in Figure 7.
Table 9: Average global warming potential impacts per project (kg CO2eq)
Deconstruction Demolition Difference

Material impacts -15,104 -7,175 7,929

Material transport (to MRF or reuse) 177 118 -59

Material transport (MRF to EOL) 461 584 123

Worker transport 617 62 -555

Equipment use on site 0 241 241

Total -13,849 -6,170 7,679

Figure 7: GWP per average home by activity (kg CO2eq)

State of Oregon Department of Environmental Quality 21

Deconstruction shows approximately double the GWP benefit when compared with demolition (Figure 8).
The difference between the two scenarios equates to 7,679 kg of CO2eq, meaning that for every house
deconstructed instead of demolished, approximately 7.6 metric tons of CO2eq is saved. Again, the majority
of this comes from the reuse of wood.

Figure 8: Total GWP per average home (kg CO2eq)

Energy demand for an average home removal for the two scenarios is shown in Table 10. In this case, the
relative difference between the two scenarios is reversed. One of the main reasons for this is that wood is
a material with a relatively low energy intensity (by nature, its main energy input during production is
solar energy). The other main reason is that energy is recovered from much of the clean wood and offsets
energy produced other ways.

State of Oregon Department of Environmental Quality 22

Table 10: Average Energy demand per project (MJ)
Deconstruction Demolition Difference

Material impacts -106,180 -129,839 -23,659

Material transport (to MRF or reuse) 2,584 1,724 -860

Material transport (MRF to EOL) 6,751 8,548 1,797

Worker transport 7,851 785 -7,066

Equipment use on site 0 3,516 3,516

Total -88,994 -115,266 -26,272

Figure 9. Energy demand per average home by activity (MJ)

Much like the GWP impacts, the energy impacts of the material are by far the largest influence on total
results. Material transport makes a small impact to the totals, while the impact of worker transport and
equipment use is minimal.

State of Oregon Department of Environmental Quality 23

In Figure 10, the total energy demand per average home is shown, with deconstruction saving approximately 89
GJ, and demolition saving 115 GJ.

Figure 10: Total energy demand per average home (MJ)

4.2.2 Individual Material Impacts

In this section, the transport and equipment use impacts are excluded from analysis, due to their low
contribution to overall impacts. This allows analysis of the GWP and energy contributions of the
materials, from removal on site to EOL. In Figure 11, the GWP contributions of each material category
are shown. Recoverable wood has the largest negative contribution (benefit) to the GWP of the
deconstruction scenario, while it has a much smaller contribution to the GWP of demolition. Both
scenarios assume a landfill fate for all painted and treated wood, resulting in identical values for non-
recoverable wood. Both scenarios see the benefit of metal recycling, while deconstruction also accounts
for reuse of some metal and ‘other’ materials, resulting in further benefits.

State of Oregon Department of Environmental Quality 24

Figure 11: GWP impacts of material categories per average home

Because the largest difference between the two scenarios is in recoverable wood, this material category is
split into the impacts of each EOL pathway in Figure 12. This shows more clearly that in the
deconstruction scenario less material is incinerated, and more material is reused, which has a greater per-
pound carbon benefit than landfilling. The carbon benefit of non-recoverable wood is identical in both
scenarios, as all of this material goes to landfill.

State of Oregon Department of Environmental Quality 25

Figure 12: GWP of recoverable wood by end-of-life fate per average home

When looking at energy from each material category, both scenarios see a large benefit from recoverable
wood and metal (Figure 13). Metal, while contributing a relatively small amount by weight to the total
materials removed, shows a significant energy benefit, through both reuse and recycling. The ‘other’
category shows the benefit of reusing materials such as lights, doors and cabinets from deconstruction,
while this material uses energy when it is landfilled from demolition.

State of Oregon Department of Environmental Quality 26

Figure 13: Energy impacts of material categories per average home

To investigate recoverable wood energy impacts further, the energy demand by EOL fate is shown in
Figure 14. This shows that while deconstruction and demolition show net benefits, this benefit is achieved
in different ways. Deconstruction achieves this benefit through reuse by offsetting the energy impacts of
new lumber production and gains even larger benefits when non-salvaged clean wood is sent for energy
recovery. The larger quantities of clean wood for energy recovery in the demolition scenario result in a
larger benefit for demolition.

State of Oregon Department of Environmental Quality 27

Figure 14: Energy demand of recoverable wood by end-of-life fate

4.3 Sensitivity Analysis

The EOL fate of recoverable wood is the among the most influential factors in this study. Since the wood
recovery markets have changed significantly over the last few years (less energy recovery and more
landfilling) we’ve modelled a few scenarios to show the potential market or policy influenced conditions.
Tables 11 and 12 below only consider the current market technologies of wood recovery replacing natural
gas for process heat applications. Wood to electricity values are not modeled here but the impact factors
are presented in Section 2.3.3. The tables show hypothetical scenarios to demonstrate how the EOL fate
for recoverable wood changes the results of the study.
Table 11 – Sensitivity analysis for Carbon impacts per average home (kgCO2e)

recoverable wood split

Scenario incineration w/ Deconstruction Demolition Net

energy landfill
recovery

Reported 56% 44% -13,849 -6,170 7,679

30/70 split 30% 70% -16,102 -10,350 5,752
100% incineration 100% 0% -10,035 904 10,939
100% landfill 0% 100% -18,702 -15,173 3,529

State of Oregon Department of Environmental Quality 28

Table 12 – Sensitivity analysis for Energy impacts per average home (MJ)

recoverable wood split

Scenario incineration w/ Deconstruction Demolition Net

energy landfill
recovery

Reported 56% 44% -88,994 -115,266 -26,272

30/70 split 30% 70% -59,517 -60,445 -928
100% incineration 100% 0% -138,878 -208,041 -69,163
100% landfill 0% 100% -25,504 2,810 28,314

Tables 12 shows that when reducing energy recovery of wood waste to only 30 percent of the waste
stream, demolition and deconstruction provide roughly equal energy benefits. This lower recovery rates
scenario may be more realistic for debris arriving in dropboxes and crunched together from residential
demolitions. From an energy perspective, the relative benefits of deconstruction increase as more
recoverable wood is sent to landfill and decrease when more wood is incinerated for energy recovery.
Table 11 shows that under any EOL fate scenario, deconstruction will always have carbon benefits over
demolition. However, the magnitude of those benefits change according to the EOL fate for recoverable
wood. Unlike the energy scenarios, the relative benefits of deconstruction decrease as more wood is sent
to landfill. This is because landfills store some of the carbon in wood whereas burning for energy
recovery has a net carbon impact because the carbon emissions from burning wood for energy exceed the
carbon savings from offsetting natural gas use.

4.4 Correlation to House Size and Age

To investigate if there is a correlation between salvage percentage and house size, the weights of salvaged
material and material removed by dropbox for each project has been plotted on the scatter plot in Figure
15. The median material weight of each are denoted by the cross-hairs labeled with the median values.
Each deconstructed house is represented by a point on the axis where the size of the point corresponds to
the square feet size of the house and the color of the point corresponds to the contractor that completed
the work. The number labels next to the points are the percentage values of total materials salvaged,
𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠
calculated as: ∗ 100
𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠+𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑

Features to notice in the scatter plot include no pattern in point sizes and the relative positions on either
axis, for example a couple of smaller points appear to yield more salvage material than some larger
points. Color-based point differentiation by contractor reveals some clustering around the percent salvage
value labels. No clear trends are visible between dropbox quantity and house size. Instead, it is clear that
certain contractors are more able to salvage larger quantities of material per house.

State of Oregon Department of Environmental Quality 29

Figure 15: Weight of salvaged and dropbox material by deconstruction project. Each
deconstruction contractor is represented by a different color.

A statistical correlation analysis found that there is no correlation (r = 0.1) between salvage quantity and
house age, and only a weak correlation (r = 0.41) between salvage quantity and house size. Further
statistical analysis can be found in Appendix B.

State of Oregon Department of Environmental Quality 30

5. Discussion and Interpretation
5.1 City-Scale Impacts
City of Portland data shows that since the ordinance, about 100 single-family homes per year are being
deconstructed instead of demolished. With a net carbon reduction per home of 7.6 metric tons of CO2eq
over demolition, this equates to a roughly 760 metric tons per year of CO2eq benefit. According to the
EPA greenhouse gas equivalencies calculator, this is the same as removing 161 cars from the road for one
year, or preventing the use of about 85,000 gallons of gasoline 4.

5.2 Policy Implications

While approximately 100 single-family houses are deconstructed in Portland each year, there are an
average of 344 total residential demolition permits issued per year (using the average of the last five
years). If all 344 houses were to be deconstructed, the total annual benefit would be 2,614 metric tons of
CO2eq saved per year. This could help the City of Portland meet its future climate and waste recovery
goals. Given reduced markets for recycling and energy recovery, salvaging materials for reuse may
increasingly become a preferred strategy in managing materials associated with building removal.

5.3 Variation in Salvage Quantities

No correlation was found between house age and salvaged material quantities, and only a weak
correlation was found between house size and salvaged material quantities. The strongest correlation was
between contractors and the percentage of material salvaged from their projects. When looking at the
salvage rate among the more experienced contractors, rates were as high as 37% salvage by weight.
Additionally, a few contractors averaged a net carbon benefit on their projects around 10 MT kgCO2e per
average home, an increase from the 7.6 MT kgCO2e savings per average home from the whole sample of
36 homes. This suggests that a more mature market may yield slightly higher salvage rates and carbon
benefits per average home. This will a valuable metric to monitor as the City of Portland’s program
continues to collect material salvage quantities.
The experience of the contractor is just one of many potential factors affecting salvage quantities. It is
possible that some contractors took on projects in which there was little salvageable material. This could
be houses in poor condition, newer houses with fewer architectural details and more mixed materials, or
some other factor such as multiple layers of asphalt roofing that added significantly to the disposal
weight. Some variance in salvage rates could be attributed to variance in reporting formats. For example,
a few contractors provided very detailed salvage inventory forms for every project and include basic
details of all fixtures whether sold or donated. Other contractors are inconsistent in reporting quantity and
material details from project to project.
Another consideration is that the 36 homes analyzed in this study were the first 36 homes through the
program after the City’s Deconstruction ordinance took effect. As mentioned before, this is another
reason to evaluate the program again once the workforce and salvage market mature. Overall, however,
the average home results presented in this study are a good representation of the variety of conditions
encountered in a population of homes.

4
https://www.epa.gov/energy/greenhouse-gas-equivalencies-calculator

State of Oregon Department of Environmental Quality 31

5.4 Reuse
Reuse is a complex issue, both from a practical standpoint and in terms of assessment of environmental
impact. In this study, it was assumed that all of the clean lumber was used, and offset the production of
new lumber. In reality, much of this material is available in smaller quantities, and can have non-standard
dimensions. Despite Oregon residential building code allowing the use of reclaimed lumber in new
construction, a strong market for contractors buying this material for new construction (framing) does not
yet exist. This market is expected to develop as deconstruction becomes more common. In the meantime,
much of this lumber may actually be used for decorative and other non-structural uses where the
aesthetics of reclaimed old-growth lumber offer value. When salvaged lumber is being used for
decorative purposes, it is still displacing the production of a material. The material being displaced,
however, has considerable uncertainty compared to a “one to one” structural framing displacement
scenario.
Another issue not strongly considered in this study is ‘bad reuse’. This refers to reuse of components and
materials that have negative overall environmental effects. For example, reusing single-pane windows
would result in a window well below current energy efficiency requirements in the building code.
Reusing doors coated in lead-based paint could have health impacts, and reuse of older energy-inefficient
appliances and furnaces would result in extra electricity and natural gas consumption. These effects on the
results of this study are expected to be low, due to the fact that windows and doors make up a very small
proportion of salvaged materials, painted and treated wood is landfilled, and appliances were not included
in the scope.

5.5 Other Impact Categories

The scope of this study was limited to two impact categories – global warming potential (carbon), and
primary energy demand. Although the results are not comprehensive, the carbon and energy results of this
study are quite similar to past DEQ research on deconstruction (Oregon DEQ, 2010). This past research,
which used models instead of actual measurements from deconstructed homes, showed very comparable
carbon and energy results, which suggests it can be used as a proxy for estimating other environmental
impacts. Using information from the past study, results indicate that deconstruction and reuse have even
larger benefits in other impact categories like eutrophication, smog creation and human/ecological health
endpoints.
Deconstruction may have other benefits not quantified in this study. Local contractors have noted that
deconstruction allows then to identify and abate asbestos more effectively. In fact, one local contractor
tracked that additional asbestos containing materials was identified and abated in approximately 50
percent of their projects after the initial asbestos survey and abatement was complete. During
deconstruction, layers of materials are often removed to reveal an older layer of materials underneath.
Flooring is a common example of a multi-layer material. Deconstruction allows the identification and
abatement of asbestos containing materials that may have otherwise not been identified or abated in the
initial survey for traditional mechanical demolitions.
Deconstruction is also a recommended practice in the Oregon Health Authority and DEQ’s recent January
2018 publication on Best Practices for the Demolition of Residences with Lead-Based Paint (Oregon
Health Authority, 2018). Deconstruction, if done according to best practices, has the potential to reduce
fugitive dust caused by mechanical demolition.

State of Oregon Department of Environmental Quality 32

6. Limitations
6.1 Data Quality
Deconstruction and demolition sites are fast-moving sites – as the saying goes, “time is money”. This fact
alone makes accurate reporting of all materials coming from the site very difficult. The raw data in this
study relies on the accuracy of reports and receipts from contractors, as no third party was present to
verify quantities. Compounding this, old houses have quirks, old timber has varying dimensions, and
houses can contain materials spanning many generations. Even so, every attempt has been made to ensure
accuracy of the material quantities from this project through rigorous data quality checking and exclusion
of outliers or unreliable datasets.
Location-specific data has been used wherever possible. Impact factors are primarily from established,
documented sources, though some factors are from national (WARM v14) or international (Ecoinvent
v2.2 GaBi v8.7) datasets. In Table 13, a data quality analysis for this project has been completed, with
comments.
Table 13: Data quality analysis for this project

Data Component Quality Level Corresponding Comments

Quality Rating
(1=best, 5=worst)
Technological Very Good 2 Actual deconstruction process is represented.
Representativeness Demolition is assumed based on local
observations and conversations.
Geographical Good 3 Material and EOL pathway data is from
Representativeness Portland. Impact factors from EPA WARM
and Ecoinvent data are for U.S. and Europe,
respectively. GaBi US datasets were used.
Time-related Excellent 1 Actual contractor data from 2016-2017 used.
Representativeness
Completeness Very Good 2 Actual quantities reported by contractors, with
receipts as evidence. Some assumptions and
material conversions required.
Precision/Uncertainty Good 3 Material quantities in dropboxes estimated in
broad categories, and many assumptions made
for salvage material weights per unit and
density.
Methodological Good 3 Used system boundary and techniques from
completeness and Life Cycle Assessment, and data from
consistency established databases with limited changes to
the carbon accounting in wood products

One limitation of using region-wide C&D waste data is that it is difficult to apply that data to specific
situations. Particularly of interest is the split between clean wood recovered for energy use and clean
wood landfilled. Transfer stations have hand-sorting lines for all waste, but still the 56 percent/44 percent
split of recovered/landfilled wood waste will come from a mix of clean, wood-only loads, and mixed
loads. It may be that deconstructed waste is easier to separate as it has been removed by hand, while
waste from a mechanical demolition site will have been crushed by heavy machinery. Unfortunately, the
exact amount of wood recovered for energy from a mixed dropbox load from each scenario is unknown.

State of Oregon Department of Environmental Quality 33

Dropbox composition is another source of uncertainty that could be improved upon with a more detailed
measurement of material weights in dropboxes from both deconstruction and demolition sites.

7. Conclusions
Material quantity data from 36 manual deconstruction projects of single-family homes in the City of
Portland was analyzed to measure the carbon and energy impacts. The analysis resulted in the following
conclusions:

• The sample of 36 homes had an average age of 112 years and average size of 1,177 square feet.
• The average deconstruction of a single-family home in Portland, Oregon yielded 39,362 pounds
of material (excluding foundation), of which 10,587 pounds (27 percent) was salvaged. The vast
majority of salvaged material by weight was softwood lumber, in the form of framing lumber,
structural beams, and sheathing (shiplap on walls and plank subfloor). This material made up over
85 percent of the total weight of salvaged materials.
• The average deconstructed home has net carbon benefit of approximately 7.6 metric tons of
CO2eq per house compared to demolition. The carbon benefits are mainly attributed to the
avoided production of new materials and the continued sequestration of biogenic carbon in the
wood.
• Landfilling wood does result in a benefit for carbon storage but reuse of wood yields a benefit
almost twice as large.
• When considering biogenic carbon as an emissions source and sink, burning wood for energy
emits more carbon than it offsets when replacing natural gas as a fuel in industrial boilers.
• Although the end-of-life fate of recoverable wood greatly influenced the relative carbon benefits
of the deconstruction scenario, sensitivity analyses revealed that deconstruction will always have
a carbon benefit over demolition even with extreme swings in the market for recoverable wood.
• Results are less clear when looking at primary energy demand. The average deconstructed home
showed an energy benefit of 89 GJ, while demolition showed a benefit of 115 GJ, a difference of
26 GJ. Based on DEQ surveys of recovered and disposed materials, much of the clean
recoverable wood (56 percent) is used as a fuel that offsets natural gas use in industrial boilers
regionally. This pathway yields a large energy credit, which is contrasted by this pathway being a
net emitter of carbon.
• For energy impacts, the rate of wood incineration for energy recovery, which offsets the use of
natural gas, highly influenced the results. A decrease in the wood recovery rate from the current
56 percent to 30 percent would make the energy benefits of both the deconstruction and
demolition scenarios approximately equal.
• Material transport, worker transport and equipment use on site were analyzed in detail. Results
indicate that the impacts were inconsequential compared to much larger impacts of material
reuse, recovery, and disposal.
• There was no correlation between salvage quantity and house age. Correlation with house age
could become more pronounced if deconstruction is applied to newer houses that contain lower
quality/value material and are physically more challenging to deconstruct due to adhesives.
• Although there was little correlation between the quantity of material salvaged and house size the
study did find that salvage quantities were more closely tied with specific contractors, indicating

State of Oregon Department of Environmental Quality 34

 some contractors were able to salvage a higher percentage of material per house. Among more
experienced contractors, salvaged rates were as high as 37 percent by weight and yielded a net
carbon benefit as high as 10 MT CO2e/average home. As the deconstruction industry matures, we
may see average salvage rates rise slightly. However, on a population-scale of homes, this study
represents a good snapshot of the environmental implications of a deconstruction policy for
single-family homes.

8. Recommendations for Future

Work
Recommendations for future work are primarily related to improving reporting and data quality and
expanding the analysis to additional environmental and human health impact factors. Cleaning and sorting
the data for this project was a time-consuming process, as was making assumptions about the composition
of dropboxes. A way to improve this could be to engage a person to be on-site while deconstruction is
happening, specifically to measure, describe and photograph the material. This would result in more
accurate numbers, as well as improved transparency and reporting.
The results of this study showed that the majority of carbon and energy impacts were from the materials,
depending on their EOL fate. Further research into the specific fates of materials from deconstruction and
demolition sites would help to improve accuracy of results. From a policy perspective, completing a
second phase of this study after the deconstruction market is more mature may be helpful to see if salvage
rates and impacts change over time.
Finally, an investigation into the reused materials market would give insight into the true amounts of
material being reused, what it is used for, and what that material is replacing. This latter point is a
challenging issue, and more data would help to provide evidence for the system boundary expansion used
in this study.

State of Oregon Department of Environmental Quality 35

9. References
American Wood Council. (2013). North American Softwood Lumber Environmental Product Declaration.
Accessed online in March 2018 at http://www.awc.org/pdf/greenbuilding/epd/AWC-EPD-
SoftwoodLumber-1307.pdf
City of Portland resolution adopting Deconstruction code: Resolution No. 37190 found at:
https://www.portlandoregon.gov/bps/article/569831
International Timber. (2018). American White Oak. Accessed May 2018 at
http://www.internationaltimber.com/range/hardwood-clears/temperate-hardwood/oak-american-white
ISO. (2017). Sustainability in buildings and civil engineering works — Core rules for environmental
product declarations of construction products and services. Second edition, 2017-07. International
Standards Organization, Geneva.
Oregon DEQ. (2010). A Life Cycle Approach to Prioritizing Methods of Preventing Waste from the
Residential Construction Sector in the State of Oregon. September, 2010. Accessed online at:
https://www.oregon.gov/deq/FilterDocs/ADU-ResBldgLCA-Report.pdf
Oregon Health Authority. (2018). Best Practices for the Demolition of Residences with Lead-Based Paint.
January 2018. Accessed online at:
https://www.oregon.gov/oha/PH/HEALTHYENVIRONMENTS/HEALTHYNEIGHBORHOODS/LEAD
POISONING/Documents/Best-Practices-Demolition-of-Residences.pdf
State of Oregon. (2017). Oregon Administrative Rules Chapter 340, Division 253 Oregon Clean Fuels
Program. Tables 3, 4 and 6. Accessed online May 2018.
https://secure.sos.state.or.us/oard/displayDivisionRules.action;JSESSIONID_OARD=TWFxYjFHGygOB
90CQds-0HFXZvwB3gvTrj6NyJ_po5ps9BdSkw4W!479495115?selectedDivision=1560

State of Oregon Department of Environmental Quality 36

Appendix A: Material
Assumptions
1 Unless contractor specifies a hardwood species in the receipt line item, all dimensional lumber is
assumed to be softwood (fir, pine, cedar, redwood, hemlock)
2 Unless contractor specifies a softwood species (fir, pine) in the receipt line item, all wood flooring
is assumed to be hardwood
3 Wood flooring specified as fir is categorized as softwood lumber
4 Wood products specified as fir or other softwood variety are categorized as softwood lumber
regardless of dimension
5 All light fixtures are assumed to be the same
6 All plumbing fixtures not specified as cast iron, steel, or fiberglass are assumed to be ceramics,
except bathtubs, which are assumed to be fiberglass unless specified otherwise
7 Unless specified otherwise, all pipe and ducting is assumed to be made of steel
8 Doors without specification are assumed to be solid wood interior doors
9 Windows without specification are assumed to be single pane wood windows
10 All windows are assumed to be 12 square feet in area with 3’x 4’ frame dimensions
11 Default weights for doors and fixtures are based on measurements of available stock in reuse
stores in Portland, OR
12 All fractions of pounds for metal and lineal, board, or square feet for wood & finish materials are
rounded to the nearest whole unit (lb or linear foot/board foot/square foot) where <0.5 is rounded
down and ≥0.5 is rounded up
13 Cabinets specified as salvaged where quantity & type information is missing are assumed to be
thee linear feet of lower cabinet
14 Where quantity information is missing for salvage fixtures (lights, plumbing, etc), it is assumed
that there is only 1 (count) of the default type
15 All dropbox tickets are reported in short tons: 2000 lbs = 1 ton = 907.185 kg

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16 Appliances (including furnaces) and furniture (which includes medicine cabinets and ‘built-in
shelving’ not specified as wood in linear feet, square feet, board feed or lbs) are not included in
the raw data summary

Table 2: Material assumptions used in this project

Description Assigned Material Name Value Units

tub fiberglass tub 60 lbs
sink fiberglass tub 10 lbs
tub cast iron 300 lbs
sink cast iron 50 lbs
angle iron cast iron 222.85 kg per cu_ft
toilet ceramics 100 lbs
sink ceramics 20 lbs
tile (box) ceramics 50 lbs
sink steel product 10 lbs
screen door steel product 15 lbs
garage door steel product 250 lbs
security door steel product 100 lbs
window bars steel product 50 lbs
metal post steel product 50 lbs
hardware steel product 5 lbs
railing steel product 25 lbs
vent steel product 5 lbs
gutter steel product 5 lbs
grab bar steel product 5 lbs
tub steel product 75 lbs
corrugated steel product 1 lbs per sq_ft
sheetmetal
carpet carpeting 2 lbs per sq_ft
plywood plywood 2.5 lbs per sq_ft per inch
thickness
osb osb 2.75 lbs per sq_ft per inch
thickness
lath softwood lumber 18.4 lbs per bundle
flooring (sq_ft) softwood lumber 0.083333 ft thickness
porch corbels softwood lumber 5 lbs
newel post softwood lumber 10 lbs
banister softwood lumber 20 lbs
column softwood lumber 50 lbs
mantel softwood lumber 100 lbs
bench hardwood lumber 100 lbs
grate hardwood lumber 5 lbs

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flooring (sq_ft) hardwood flooring 0.083333 ft thickness
steps hardwood flooring 0.25 cu_ft per 12x36x1_inch step
doors outer door (solid wood) 46.83 kg per door
doors inner door (solid wood) 23.26 kg per door
doors inner door (hollow wood) 18.29 kg per door
windows window (single wood) 19.518 kg per (3'x4' = 12sq_ft)
window
windows window (double wood) 26.2764 kg per (3'x4' = 12sq_ft)
window
windows window (double vinyl) 29.3652 kg per (3'x4' = 12sq_ft)
window
cabinets cabinets (lower) 15.27 kg per lineal ft
cabinets cabinets (upper short) 8.21 kg per lineal ft
cabinets cabinets (upper long) 11.08 kg per lineal ft
light fixtures light fixture 5 lbs per fixture
softwood lumber softwood lumber 530.7 kg per cubic meter
hardwood lumber hardwood lumber 770 kg per cubic meter

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Appendix B: Additional Figures
and Tables

Figure 16: Heat map diagram of material quantities salvaged from each project

Detailed breakout of the total material weight by the specific material types on each project, showing
larger yield with increasing color intensity. The greatest single material quantity from any project was one
project that reported ~1700 kg of plywood, while the greatest yield of any material from each project was
in the Softwood lumber category (which is mostly framing wood and some fir flooring).

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Figure 17: Correlation of material salvaged (lbs) by house size (square feet)

Slight positive trend in kg of salvage materials with increasing house size, but still only a modest
correlation (0.4).

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 Figure 18: Correlation of materials removed by dropbox (lbs) by house size in square feet

Nearly flat (indicating no correlation) trend in disposal quantity over house size. Note, in both salvage and
disposal quantity, the confidence band is nearly 3x larger than the width of the band nearer to the median
values

Figure 19: Correlations of salvage and dropbox quantities by house size and age

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