Waste glorious waste.

Building construction is not only a big waste producer; it's a hungry mouth gaping for recycled goods. The recently built Waterloo Region Green Home included hundreds of kilograms of ground-up newspapers for insulation, a roof of recycled steel, old floor boards taken from a Seagram's warehouse, flooring tiles made from recycled glass, crushed recycled glass for foundation drainage, and recycled paint. The house was built along with nine others under the federally sponsored Advanced Houses Program (AHP) as an energy conservation project -- utility costs are $748 a year compared with $1,977 for a conventional, gas-heated house.

The program manager pointed out that a new house normally produces 2.5 tonnes of waste that has to be sent to landfill sites. Conserving materials and using recycled products can reduce the construction industry's environmental impact dramatically.

For example, the Environhome in Bedford, N.S. contains 9,174 kilos of recycled material, including 7,026 kilos of recycled newsprint used as insulation and in drywall, 1,500 kilos of ash mixed in poured concrete, and 193 kilos of dust and sawdust used in the hardboard siding.