Glossary of Terms

C&D: construction and demolition – could be new construction or renovation.

Tipping Fees: charges for disposing of waste at a C&D disposal site; usually calculated by the tonne.

Deconstruction: disassembling parts, or all, of buildings in order to reuse or recycle materials.

Adaptive Reuse: redeveloping a building or space for a new use.  Renovations are an example of adaptive reuse.

Clean Fill: Uncontaminated rubble such as crushed rock, concrete and soil used for leveling or landscaping.

Aggregates: Rock, stone, brick, concrete, mortar, asphalt, ceramic.

Clean Wood: Lumber without preservatives, paints or other toxic treatments.

Urbanite: Broken concrete from foundations, asphalt pieces from roads etc.

Brush: Prunings, branches and general tree or shrub debris.

Gabion walls: aggregate contained in heavy wire mesh “baskets” to create walls.

Rubble trench: a drainage system where a ditch is filled in with aggregate to allow water to easily flow.

Timber frame: the method of creating structures using heavy timbers as opposed to conventionally milled lumber.

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