Trash is becoming a new treasure in building construction with advances in digitalization. Escalating prices for new building products and supply chain hurdles, coupled with the vast quantity of waste generated, have motivated the construction industry to improve its resource efficiency using digital tools. Construction and demolition waste (CDW) comprises nearly a third of all solid waste produced globally. In the U.S. alone, CDW is 600 million tons annually—the most significant single-stream refuse source, exceeding the quantity of household garbage twofold.

Fortunately, a large percentage of CDW is recyclable. However, effective strategies and tools to take advantage of this free resource and excess surplus building products have thus far been limited. According to a 2022 McKinsey study, “The building products market forms the very foundation of our economies yet remains one of the most fragmented—and least digitized—industries in the world.” This limitation has economic consequences. An estimated $15 trillion investment gap in global infrastructure needs has been partially attributed to the industry's intrinsic inefficiencies.

As a result, several new efforts are underway to improve the construction industry's productivity by developing the necessary platforms and approaches to reuse CDW. These endeavors represent a range of scales and sectors, from boutique projects to national government-supported initiatives.

The small scale is exemplified by offerings like Surplus, a peer-to-peer product marketplace founded by Rhode Island of Design architecture graduates Michael Farris and Aanya Arora. Surplus aims to find new homes for the excess building products that contractors routinely order for a given construction project, which may go unused or wind up in landfills. Surplus functions like a simple classified listing that shows product availability with information about material quantity, dimensions, manufacturer, location, and asking price. A finalist in the Sustainable Markets Initiative’s Global Terra Carta Design Lab Competition, Surplus is like a digital version of the Habitat ReStore that focuses on this particular category of construction materials.

San Luis Obispo, CA-based OffLoadIt (OLI) is another web platform for surplus building products. Founded in 2020 by Steve Silva, a contractor who recognized the economic and environmental advantages of repurposing unwanted materials, OLI aims to streamline the matchmaking process between potential sellers and buyers. In addition to excess new products, the website and companion app feature used materials and equipment—such as tools, trucks, and trailers. In addition to mitigating the typical quantity of waste produced at a construction site, OLI can also minimize product lead times and reduce potential purchase prices by 20 to 40 percent—particularly in the case of rapidly depreciating construction machinery.

Digitalization is transforming initiatives like Surplus and OffLoadIt into broader possibilities. This phenomenon is different than digitization, which is converting analog information into a digital format. According to IT consulting firm Gartner, digitalization is “the use of digital technologies to change a business model and provide new revenue and value-producing opportunities; it is the process of moving to a digital business.”

Last year, ASTM published the “Advanced Technologies for Digital Construction Roadmap,” which addresses advanced technologies and modes of collaboration that, if achieved, will significantly transform the construction industry. Priority challenges and recommendations include improving data management systems, enhancing interoperability across different platforms, and improving standardization within a highly varied material industry.

The Holcim Foundation for Sustainable Construction views digitalization as a strategic way to attain a circular construction economy. The organization has partnered with environmental technology company N1 to launch Site Depot, a software program that identifies reliable repositories of recyclable building products. Companies can use Site Depot to manage material streams between their own projects or share product data with other contractors. Holcim is integrating the program into ORIS, a circular materials platform for infrastructure projects intended for use by material manufacturers, engineers, municipal authorities, and contractors.

Ultimately, a digitalized circular economy of construction materials will be most likely achieved with broad input from the public as well as private sectors. A compelling example is Loopfront, a cloud-based platform promoted by Norway as a digital hub for used and surplus building products and equipment. Although the European Union mandates that 70 percent of all construction materials be recovered, reused, or recycled, achieving this level of resource recovery has been challenging before adopting adequate tools. Loopfront’s robust software infrastructure, directly connected to Norway’s primary circular building materials platform, provides real-time data about products and processes to contractors, manufacturers, and building owners. According to the company, users can reduce carbon by up to 15 percent and costs by up to 70 percent by using the software. The more significant savings these new software platforms demonstrate—in Norway and other nations—the more attainable a material circular economy will be.