Construction Waste Statistics: U.S. Material Flows, Sources, and Data Years

What are the key construction waste statistics?

The United States generated an estimated 600.33 million U.S. short tons of C&D debris in 2018. The figures below put the strongest national, project-level, state-availability, and Tennessee findings in one place, with the source and data year carried in every line.

1. 1
   The United States generated an estimated 600.33 million U.S. short tons of construction and demolition (C&D) debris in 2018—the most recent national year EPA has published, verified July 23, 2026 (U.S. EPA, Advancing Sustainable Materials Management: 2018 Fact Sheet, December 2020, and EPA's current C&D summary table).
2. 2
   C&D debris was 2.05 times U.S. municipal solid waste generation in 2018—600.33 million tons against 292.36 million tons (calculated from EPA's 2018 figures).
3. 3
   Demolition produced 567.3 million tons, or 94.5%, of 2018 C&D debris; construction produced 33.0 million tons, or 5.5% (EPA 2018 Fact Sheet, Table 6).
4. 4
   EPA estimated that 143.78 million tons of C&D debris went to landfill in 2018, or 23.95% of the total (EPA C&D summary table; percentage calculated from EPA's published tonnages).
5. 5
   EPA estimated that 456.55 million tons, or 76.05%, were directed to intended next-use markets in 2018—EPA's term is "intended next use," which is not the same as a completed recycling rate (EPA C&D summary table).
6. 6
   Concrete alone was 405.2 million tons, or 67.5%, of 2018 C&D debris; concrete plus asphalt concrete was 512.2 million tons, or 85.3% (EPA 2018 Fact Sheet, Table 6, and calculation).
7. 7
   Roads and bridges generated 275.3 million tons of C&D debris in 2018, compared with 188.8 million tons from buildings—45.8% more (EPA 2018 Fact Sheet, Table 7, and calculation).
8. 8
   The 2018 C&D estimate equals about 10.1 pounds per U.S. resident per day, against EPA's 4.9 pounds per person per day for municipal solid waste (calculated using EPA's published 2018 population of 327.2 million).
9. 9
   Estimated C&D landfilling nearly matched municipal solid waste landfilling in 2018—143.78 million tons against 146.12 million—making C&D 49.6% of the two streams' combined landfilled weight (calculated from EPA's 2018 figures).
10. 10
    Aggregate was the single largest intended destination for C&D debris in 2018 at 313.07 million tons, or 52.15% of everything generated (EPA C&D summary table).
11. 11
    Brick and clay tile had the highest calculated landfill share of any listed 2018 C&D material at 87.8%, followed by gypsum drywall at 86.3% and asphalt shingles at 86.1% (calculated from EPA 2018 Fact Sheet, Table 8).
12. 12
    EPA's 1996 building-related study estimated 4.38 pounds of debris per square foot for new residential construction—the weighted average across 93 dwelling units in five U.S. waste-assessment programs, with individual program results ranging from 2.41 to 11.3 pounds per square foot (U.S. EPA/Franklin Associates, EPA530-R-98-010, June 1998, Table 3).
13. 13
    The same study estimated about 111 pounds per square foot for single-family demolition—roughly 25 times its new-residential construction factor (EPA530-R-98-010, 1998; the report describes a per-building ratio of 20 to 30 times).
14. 14
    Renovation generated 44% of building-related C&D debris and new construction 8%; demolition accounted for 48% (EPA530-R-98-010, June 1998, Table 8, data year 1996).
15. 15
    EPA's directory of state C&D measurement reports lists one or more reports for 35 states and the District of Columbia; 15 states have no entry (counted by this publication on July 23, 2026 from EPA's directory, page last updated April 7, 2026).
16. 16
    Tennessee rules have prohibited issuance of new Class IV disposal-facility permits since July 1, 2008 (Tenn. Comp. R. & Regs. 0400-11-01-.04(1)(b)5).

How much construction waste does the United States generate?

EPA estimated that the United States generated 600.33 million U.S. short tons of construction and demolition debris in 2018. That is the most recent national estimate the agency has published; we checked EPA's summary table and its downloadable historical data on July 23, 2026 and both still end at 2018. C&D debris is counted separately from municipal solid waste, so the two figures should never be added together without care.

Construction and demolition debris is the material generated when structures are built, renovated, or torn down. EPA's national estimate covers seven materials — concrete, asphalt concrete (road pavement), wood products, drywall and plaster, brick and clay tile, asphalt shingles, and steel — across buildings, roads and bridges, and other structures.

What is construction waste made of?

Concrete dominates. It accounted for 405.2 million tons in 2018 — 67.5% of all C&D debris. Add asphalt concrete, the material in road pavement, and the two together reach 512.2 million tons, or 85.3% of the national total. Everything people picture when they think of construction waste — lumber, drywall, shingles, brick, steel — comes to under 15% combined.

Where does construction waste actually go?

EPA reports that 456.55 million tons of 2018 C&D debris were directed to intended next-use markets and 143.78 million tons went to landfill. The single largest intended destination was aggregate—crushed material used in applications such as road base and fill—at 313.07 million tons, or 52.15% of everything generated. One word in EPA's terminology carries a lot of weight here: intended.

How much construction waste comes from construction versus demolition?

Demolition produced 567.3 million tons of C&D debris in 2018. Construction produced 33.0 million tons. That 94.5% to 5.5% split changes what the headline number describes.

The phrase "construction waste" invites a picture of a jobsite dumpster filling with offcuts. That is a real part of the stream, but EPA's construction category is roughly one-eighteenth of the total tonnage. The overwhelming majority of the estimate is assigned to demolition—material removed when existing buildings, pavement, bridges, and other structures are torn down.

This matters for anyone writing about waste reduction. Cutting jobsite scrap is worth doing, but the mass of the problem sits in what happens to existing structures at end of life. Heavy inert material dominates because concrete and pavement are heavy, not because demolition is uniquely careless.

Do buildings or roads generate more construction waste?

Roads and bridges generated 275.3 million tons of C&D debris in 2018. Buildings generated 188.8 million. Other structures generated 136.2 million. Infrastructure, not buildings, is the largest single source — roads and bridges produced 45.8% more debris than every building in the country combined.

EPA defines "other structures" to include communication, power, transportation, sewer and waste disposal, water supply, conservation and development, and manufacturing infrastructure. EPA also notes two allocation limits in its own footnotes: wood assigned to buildings includes some lumber used in other structures, and steel assigned to buildings includes steel used in roads and bridges, because the underlying consumption data could not be split.

The practical consequence: for an article about buildings broadly, the relevant 2018 subtotal is 188.8 million tons, not 600.33 million. EPA's Table 7 does not split that buildings subtotal into residential and nonresidential amounts, so 188.8 million tons is not a housing-only or homebuilding figure. Quoting the national headline in a building-only story overstates the buildings subtotal by a factor of more than three.

How much waste does a single project generate?

EPA has published per-square-foot waste generation factors that provide a traceable source for a statistic often repeated without one. Its 1996 building-related data produced estimates of 4.38 pounds per square foot for new residential construction and 111 pounds per square foot for single-family demolition—roughly 25 times as much. No newer federal project-level generation-factor dataset was identified among the EPA and federal source pages reviewed on July 23, 2026.

Is construction waste actually increasing?

A 342% or 343% growth statistic circulates in this category. It comes from treating the 135.53 million tons under EPA's web-table label "1990" and the 600.33 million tons under "2018" as comparable endpoints; the exact displayed-endpoint calculation is 342.95%. The cited sources show that those endpoints are not a like-for-like trend.

EPA's live summary table links its "1990" column to a 1998 report that estimates 1996 building-related C&D debris. It links its "2005" column to a 2009 report that estimates 2003 building-related C&D materials. The 2015, 2017, and 2018 entries use a broader framework that includes buildings, roads and bridges, and other structures.

The older studies were building-related only. The 1998 report states its scope plainly: building construction, demolition, and renovation, excluding roadway, bridge, land-clearing, and excavation debris. Its headline estimate was about 136 million tons for 1996, close to—but not identical to—the 135.53 million tons displayed under EPA's "1990" web-table label.

The 2015, 2017, and 2018 figures include roads, bridges, and other structures. In 2018, buildings were 31.5% of the total.

Using 170.0 and 188.8 million tons yields an 11.1% increase across the 2003-to-2018 source-data years, a span of 15 years. Even this is not perfectly like-for-like: the older building-related study and the newer buildings subtotal differ in allocation and methodology.

This is our analysis of EPA's published tables and source list, not an EPA statement. EPA also changed its asphalt-concrete methodology in the 2018 analysis and revised earlier broad-series estimates. The 343% displayed-endpoint calculation remains unsuitable as a like-for-like growth claim.

Which construction waste claims need checking?

Several figures repeat across this topic with no source or with a source that says something different from what is claimed. We checked the ones we saw most often against the primary-source record. The verdicts separate claims that are publishable as written from claims that require corrected wording, narrow context, or exclusion.

Which states appear in EPA's construction waste data directory?

EPA maintains a directory of state and local government C&D materials measurement reports. We counted it on July 23, 2026: it lists reports for 35 states and the District of Columbia, and 15 states have no entry at all. EPA's directory is not a single comparable state-by-state generation table; it links reports of differing scope and says data are unavailable for some states.

The 15 states with no entry in EPA's directory: Alabama, Arizona, Idaho, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Nebraska, New Hampshire, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, and Wyoming.

EPA states the limitation itself: data is not available for all states, and in some cases the linked reports cover solid waste broadly, with C&D as only one component.

Comparison across states is harder still, because the states that do report are not counting the same thing. EPA's 1998 study collected state definitions and found real divergence—Massachusetts and North Carolina specifically exclude land-clearing debris from C&D, while Kansas, Kentucky, and South Carolina explicitly include vegetation, stumps, or land-clearing material. A state that counts those materials will report more C&D than an otherwise comparable state that does not.

Two historical anchors from the same 1998 study, useful for context and clearly dated. A 1994 survey for EPA identified about 1,900 active C&D landfills nationally, with Florida largest at 280 and Louisiana, North Carolina, Ohio, Kentucky, Mississippi, and South Dakota each above 100. A 1995 review found 11 states requiring C&D landfills to meet municipal landfill standards, 24 regulating them under separate C&D rules, 8 setting different requirements for on-site versus off-site landfills, and 7 exempting on-site C&D landfills from regulation entirely.

Dataset: Download state-cd-data-index-2026.csv — one row for each state and the District of Columbia, recording whether EPA's directory contains an entry and the report title or titles shown there. Version 1.0.0 audits directory presence and titles only; it does not certify that every linked report publishes a separately reported, comparable C&D total.

What do Tennessee records say about construction and demolition waste?

Tennessee does not publish a single C&D-only statewide generation figure in the primary sources reviewed for this page. The state permits C&D disposal through landfill classes that also accept other materials, and its waste-reduction rules treat Class III and Class IV receipts differently unless the material is recycled or put to an approved beneficial use. Facility receipts, waste origin, and statewide C&D generation are not interchangeable measures.

new-residential construction debris (short tons)
  = units authorized
  × average new-home floor area (sq ft)
  × 4.38 lb per sq ft
  ÷ 2,000

How was this construction waste dataset built?

Every consequential number on this page comes from a primary document published by a U.S. federal agency or the State of Tennessee, or from a calculation whose inputs and formula are shown. We collected and read the sources on July 23, 2026, preserved source years and scope, and reproduced every derived figure from the published values.

What we collected. EPA's C&D material-specific summary page and its precise 2018 pathway values; EPA's Advancing Sustainable Materials Management: 2018 Fact Sheet (December 2020), Tables 1, 2, 3, 6, 7, and 8; EPA's 2015 generation and end-of-life management methodology documents; EPA's 1998 building-related characterization report for project-level factors and 1996 activity shares; EPA's 2009 report estimating 2003 building-related amounts; EPA's directory of state and local C&D measurement reports; the BTS Freight Analysis Framework Version 4 methodology section on municipal solid waste and C&D debris; Tennessee rules 0400-11-01-.01, -.04, and -.09; TDEC's current solid-waste permit, plan, and Annual Progress Report pages; and the Census Building Permits Survey annual county files for Montgomery County.

How we processed it. All national values are U.S. short tons. We did not blend foreign or global figures into any U.S. table; geographic scopes remain separate.

Where EPA publishes tonnages but not rates, we calculated the rate and labelled it as our calculation. The formulas:

material share of generation    = material total ÷ 600.3
demolition share                = 567.3 ÷ 600.3
material landfill share         = landfill ÷ (landfill + total next use)
roads-vs-buildings comparison   = (275.3 ÷ 188.8 − 1) × 100
per-capita C&D generation       = (600.33M × 2,000) ÷ (327.2M × 365)
buildings comparison            = (188.8 ÷ 170.0 − 1) × 100
web-table endpoint calculation  = (600.33 ÷ 135.53 − 1) × 100
2025 permits vs. 2021 peak      = (2,723 ÷ 4,008 − 1) × 100

Rounding. EPA's summary table carries more precision than the fact sheet's one-decimal tables. We use the precise summary values (600.33, 456.55, 143.78) for overall rates and the fact sheet's rounded values for material-level rates, and we disclose where the two tables disagree rather than reconciling them silently.

Verification tiers. ★ means the primary source was opened and the value or rule was read directly. A ● marker is reserved for future compiled rows awaiting direct re-verification. Version 1.0.0 publishes only ★ rows in its tables and downloads.

Tennessee facility data. TDEC's Annual Progress Report and Solid Waste Origin Report systems publish facility and regional solid-waste reporting. Class III and Class IV facilities can accept materials beyond C&D, however, and a facility's location is not the same as the waste's county of origin. This page therefore does not relabel Class III/IV facility receipts as Tennessee or Montgomery County C&D generation.

Dataset downloads: construction-waste-statistics-2026.csv · construction-waste-statistics-2026.json · state-cd-data-index-2026.csv. The source-mapped files include table and section IDs, row labels, metrics, values, units, data years, source documents, source locations, source URLs, formulas, verification tiers, verification dates, and scope notes.

What does this data show — and what does it not show?

These are estimates produced by materials-flow modelling, not a national weigh-scale census. The boundaries below are part of the findings: they identify which materials, years, geographies, and outcomes the numbers can support and which they cannot.

The national data does not show:

• A 2026 total. The most recent federal data year is 2018.
• Direct measurement. EPA's generation estimate uses a top-down materials-flow method based on historical material consumption data and assumed material lifespans, with asphalt concrete estimated separately from industry and state facility data. Its management estimate uses a modelled methodology drawing on state-reported data and composition studies.
• Every construction material. EPA's estimate covers seven material categories. Plastics, glass, carpet, cardboard, and fines that appear in real mixed C&D loads are not in the generation total.
• Land-clearing debris or disaster debris. EPA's generation methodology explicitly excludes both. Stumps, soil, and rock from site clearing are outside the number, as is debris from hurricanes, tornadoes, and fires — even though many states include some of this material in their own C&D definitions.
• Completed recycling. "Intended for next use" is a destination, not an outcome.
• State or county generation. EPA's directory is not a single comparable state-by-state generation dataset.

The project-level factors in Table 5 date from mid-1990s waste assessments, published in 1998. The study's authors flagged the small number of point-source assessments as a significant source of uncertainty. They are planning factors.

The historical series in the first table crosses at least one scope change and one methodology change. Do not compute a long-run growth rate from it without reading the scope section.

The Tennessee material on this page is regulatory and statutory, plus Census permit counts. It does not present Class III/IV facility receipts as state or county C&D generation because those facility classes include other materials and facility location does not establish waste origin.

Figures we deliberately excluded: a global 2.2 billion ton total; a "30% of delivered materials become waste" jobsite figure; any characterization of 23% as construction waste's current national share; any description of 76.05% as a completed recycling rate; and any 1990-to-2018 growth percentage.

How should this page be cited?

This is a neutral bibliographic reference for the page and its versioned dataset. It is provided so the publication title, URL, verification date, and dataset version are unambiguous.

Underlying data belongs to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. Bureau of Transportation Statistics, the U.S. Census Bureau, and the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation. Original sources are listed in full below.

What are the most common questions about construction waste statistics?

These answers restate the page's most frequently needed figures with the year and scope attached.

Which primary sources support these figures?

The numerical tables, regulatory statements, historical factors, and dataset-availability findings above trace to the primary sources below. All links were checked during the July 23, 2026 verification pass; source publication or page-update dates are retained where the agency provides them.

1. 1.U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. "Construction and Demolition Debris: Material-Specific Data." Page last updated October 23, 2025. epa.gov (C&D material-specific data) — Verified July 23, 2026.
2. 2.U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Advancing Sustainable Materials Management: 2018 Fact Sheet. EPA 530-F-20-009, December 2020. EPA 2018 Fact Sheet (PDF) — Verified July 23, 2026. Tables 1, 2, 3, 6, 7, and 8.
3. 3.U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. "Studies, Summary Tables, and Data Related to the Advancing Sustainable Materials Management Report." Page last updated October 9, 2025. epa.gov (studies and data) — Verified July 23, 2026.
4. 4.U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Resource Conservation and Recovery. Construction and Demolition Debris Generation in the United States, 2015. September 2018. C&D Generation 2015 (PDF) — Verified July 23, 2026.
5. 5.U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Construction and Demolition Debris Management in the United States, 2015. March 2020. C&D Management 2015 (PDF) — Verified July 23, 2026.
6. 6.U.S. Environmental Protection Agency / Franklin Associates. Characterization of Building-Related Construction and Demolition Debris in the United States. EPA530-R-98-010, June 1998; data year 1996. EPA530-R-98-010 (PDF) — Verified July 23, 2026.
7. 7.U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Estimating 2003 Building-Related Construction and Demolition Materials Amounts. EPA530-R-09-002, March 2009. EPA530-R-09-002 (PDF) — Verified July 23, 2026.
8. 8.U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. "State and Local Government Construction and Demolition Materials Measurement Reports." Page last updated April 7, 2026. epa.gov (state C&D reports directory) — Verified July 23, 2026.
9. 9.U.S. Bureau of Transportation Statistics. "Municipal Solid Waste and Construction & Demolition Debris," Freight Analysis Framework Version 4 methodology, September 23, 2016. BTS FAF4 methodology (debris) — Verified July 23, 2026.
10. 10.Tennessee Secretary of State. Tenn. Comp. R. & Regs. Chapter 0400-11-01, Solid Waste Processing and Disposal. Tenn. Comp. R. & Regs. 0400-11-01 (PDF) — Verified July 23, 2026 for rules 0400-11-01-.01, -.04, and -.09.
11. 11.Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation. "Solid Waste Program: Permit Documents." Page last updated July 14, 2026. TDEC permit documents — Verified July 23, 2026.
12. 12.Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation. "Solid Waste Program." Page last updated July 9, 2026. TDEC solid waste program — Verified July 23, 2026.
13. 13.Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation. "2025–2035 Solid Waste Management Plan." Page last updated June 17, 2026. TDEC 2025–2035 SWM Plan — Verified July 23, 2026.
14. 14.Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation. "Annual Progress Report." Page last updated May 29, 2026. TDEC annual progress report — Verified July 23, 2026.
15. 15.U.S. Census Bureau. Building Permits Survey, annual county files directory. census.gov (BPS county files) — Verified July 23, 2026.
16. 16.U.S. Census Bureau. Building Permits Survey annual county files used for Montgomery County, Tennessee (state code 47, county code 125): co2020a.txt · co2021a.txt · co2022a.txt · co2023a.txt · co2024a.txt · co2025a.txt — Verified July 23, 2026.

What changed in this dataset?

The change log records substantive data, scope, methodology, and source changes. A verification date changes only when the primary sources have actually been rechecked.

Last verified: July 23, 2026