San Antonio Construction Waste Program Keeps Thousands of Pounds of Waste Out of Landfills

Two years ago, San Antonio began a program that would work to keep construction waste out of landfills and so far, it’s paying off.

The Deconstruction and Circular Economy Program began in 2022 and in that time, the city of San Antonio has received 25,000 pounds of material at its Material Innovation Center. There, high quality building material can be reused for housing projects and more.

The city council approved a change that requires older, historic buildings to be deconstructed rather than demolished, to preserve materials and allow them to be reused.

“Historic buildings were built with very high-quality wood, old growth. So, a lot of the framing materials — even doors, windows, other types of, a lot of wood — obviously that type of material can go into other historic homes,” said Shanon Miller, direct of the Office of Historical Preservation.

“That’s really about reuse and reimagining and doing as much as we can with the material before it ends its life. And that helps us reduce, as a community, our dependence on new material and also helps us manage what’s going into the waste stream.”

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