Construction and Demolition Recycling is the only C&D Facility in California that is concentrating solely on tenant improvement demolition debris; we had no choice but to take a leadership role because there was a vacuum that needs to be filled. Too many materials are being sent to landfills because they are not the low-hanging fruit that traditional C&D Facilities harvest. It became our goal to lead by example and show that the diversion of tenant improvement demolition debris could be done as efficiently and cost effectively as the debris from more traditionally recognized demolition debris. CDR has become the first and so far only recycling facility in Southern California that has earned 3rd Party Diversion Certification from The Recycling Certification Institute, making CDR the only facility in Southern California that is eligible to provide the US Green Building Council LEED Pilot Point for facilities with 3rd party verification.

Recycling is Not Rocket Science

What we do at our facility is not a secret recipe kept under lock and key. The advantage that we have at Construction and Demolition Recycling is the fact that we didn't start out to be recyclers. We grew from an interior demolition contractor into what we have become today.

Being fairly new to the industry, we had none of the preconceived notions that hampered other recyclers who had been in business for years. We used the analogy of the bumblebee - According to aerodynamic principles; the wings of the bumblebee are not big enough to support the mass of the bee's body. Since no one bothered to tell the bee, the bee just keeps flying.

Similarly, the staff of Construction and Demolition Recycling jumped into the recycling world with completely open minds. Nobody had ever told us that we could not recycle most of the materials that are generally accepted as trash, so we looked for places to recycle them. The drywall, carpet, and ceiling tile that we recover has long been regarded by many to be residual debris with no commercial or reuse value, and that accepted notion has limited the amount of time and energy that companies put into finding markets for these materials. Because we had no preconceptions about what could and could not be recycled, we looked for outlets, and eventually found them.

All other construction and demolition facilities consider demolition debris to be concrete, asphalt, wood, dirt, and steel. While these are components of full building teardowns or "hard demolition" jobs, these projects only account for a portion of the demolition going on in urban areas. Many demolition jobs in urban areas are what we call "soft demo" jobs - the building core and shell are unaffected, but the interior is stripped so the next tenant can design their own space. These jobs produce little of the above-mentioned “traditional” materials, with the exception of steel and wood, but generate debris consisting of drywall, used cabinetry, carpet, ceiling tile, and office furniture. CDR has gone the extra mile, and has found markets for these materials.

Donating What is Left, Doing what is right

Our donation program is second-to-none; we reintroduce over 30 tons of salvaged materials into the community every month, with these items going to any non-profit in need. No organization is turned away, and the materials that have been donated have gone to orphanages, back to work centers, and homeless shelters as well as churches, fire stations and community outreach entities.

We have regularly shipped 800 tons of drywall, 101 tons of carpet and 420 tons of manufactured lumber for recycling or re-use every month for the last 5 years. Those numbers cannot be matched by any other facility in the country.

We've donated to over 250 different charities over the last couple of years, and have also made our inventory available to local fire stations, police stations, and school districts. Whether it be more than 1,000 lineal feet of chain link fencing donated to the Wolf Mountain Animal Rescue, or the full industrial kitchen, complete with sinks, stoves, fryers, and ovens, donated to a Romanian orphanage, Construction and Demolition Recycling is donating more than 1400 tons of material every year.