Adaptability

Adaptability in a building is its potential to adapt through time to successfully accommodate change in requirements. It is a characteristic of a building that allows its parts to gradually change while the building continues to be useful.

Deconstruction

Deconstruction is the taking apart of a building in such a way that its component parts can be re-used.

Down-cycling  

Down-cycling is the manufacture of a material of lesser quality or a lower specification from waste material that was originally a higher grade. This is a lesser form of recycling as some of the qualities of the higher grade material are lost. One example is the crushing of concrete for use as road fill or aggregate

Landfill

Landfill is a waste disposal site for the deposit of the waste onto or into land (i.e. underground), including: Internal waste disposal sites (i.e. landfill where a producer of waste is carrying out its own waste disposal at the place of production). A landfill is classified depending on the waste type that is disposed in it.

Primary material         

A material whose production relies predominantly from extraction of natural resources.

Producer Responsibility

Producer responsibility is the practice of holding the producer of a product responsible to some extent for the management of the pollution and waste products associated with the products they manufacture. This is a strategy aimed to integrate environmental costs associated with products throughout their life cycles into their market price. The producer is responsible to recover products that contain toxic and hazardous constituents which may present a threat to the safety of the community and which may place a burden on the end-of-life management of the product> Examples include motor vehicles, white goods, tyres, and electronic equipment.

Reclamation    

Reclamation refers to the extraction of materials from the waste stream and their reuse with minimal reprocessing for the same or different purpose (the terms reclamation and reuse are often used interchangeably).

Recyclables (Recyclable materials)

Refers to materials that are readily recycled such as paper, glass, plastic, used oil, and metals. They can be readily reprocessed to form part or all of another material (the same or different) instead of being disposed of as waste.

Recycled material        

A material that uses a significant amount of recycled resources in its manufacture (steel), or a product that is produced partly or entirely from a material which has been extracted from the waste stream (e.g. cellulose fibre insulation from recycled paper).

Recycling        

Recycling is often used as a generic term referring to re-use, refurbishment and materials recycling.  More specifically, recycling refers to the process of collecting and separating materials from waste and their subsequent reprocessing for a new use.

The Canadian Greening Government web site defines Recycling as a “Set of processes for reclaiming, as a material input to a product or service system, material that would otherwise be disposed of as waste”.

Reduction       

Reduction concerns using less resources and creating less hazardous waste and pollution by modifying design or production methods. Reduction methods involve changes in manufacturing technology, raw material inputs, and product formulation. Reduction includes:

• A reduction in the volume of materials used for a building or component.
• A reduction in the amount of waste produced during manufacture, use or disposal.
• A reduction in the pollution that results from manufacture, use or disposal

Refurbishment            

Refurbishment is the replacement of some parts in a product or building to extend its life and enable it to return to its original or similar use.

Renewable resource

A renewable resource is any natural resource that is regenerated at a rate equal to or faster than the rate at which it is depleted. To be renewable a resource must have a way of regenerating itself.

Reuse  

Reuse is the use of old components with little or no reprocessing largely in their original form, either for the original purpose or for a new purpose. For example, the reuse of a steel cladding panel.

Up-cycling

Up-cycling is taking a low grade material and turning it into a high grade material, often using human energy.

Waste  

Waste is unwanted or undesired material left over after the completion of a process. Waste is defined as something that the producer or holder discards or intends to or is required to discard.

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