Emerging trends of zero waste in the built environment and a paradigm shift toward sustainability

Net zero waste buildings are not as widespread a concept as are net zero energy buildings, but are gaining momentum in urban regions. Municipal authorities and all stakeholders in the construction sector around the globe are adapting to work toward zeroing waste. Although the ultimate target is zero waste, the policies and tools adopted in building construction basically work on the values of 3Rs (reduce, reuse, and recycle), trying to minimize waste in landfills and incinerators for ecological and economic gain, thus compelling the use of a cradle-to-cradle model instead of a cradle-to-grave model. This shifts the paradigm and slowly advances toward zero waste and sustainability. The emerging trends of practices and challenges include source reduction (tops the list of solid waste, EPA), salvaging and reusing (deconstruction), recycling C&D materials, rebuying C&D materials, waste to wealth, and waste to energy (WtW, WtE).