But instead of ending in the scrap heap, the concrete will be ground up and used to fill the site, steel will be melted to create construction supports, and the aluminum will be reused in cans and other products.
As companies become more environmentally aware, that attitude is reflected in the buildings that they construct and the ones they renovate or tear down.
Officials at PNC Financial Services, for example, plan to recycle more than 70 percent of the downtown Pittsburgh building that they recently began deconstructing, a trend being seen at more demolition sites nationwide.
Now the company is being much more deliberate in how it takes down the building, a process that will run about two months.
PNC Financial bought the city's former Public Safety Building in 2004 for $4.2 million, and immediately announced plans to turn the space into a park.
The company had previously built the world's largest certified-green corporate building at a site near the building.
Officials estimate that the building will yield 11,000 tons of waste — 8,000 of which is recyclable. In addition to the steel and concrete, 24 tons of exterior steel will be used in other products and the foam-board ceiling tiles will be returned to the manufacturer to be used again.
Construction Junction, a nonprofit retail store for used and surplus building materials in Pittsburgh, saves thousands of doors, windows and cabinets for reuse every year, according to its Web site.
The demolition of buildings in the United States produces about 124 million tons of debris every year, according to the Deconstruction Institute, a group based in Florida that encourages the recycling of buildings and the use of recycled building materials.
Different municipalities have different requirements, said Peter Templeton, the deputy director of the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design project and International Programs for the Green Building Alliance. Some of the strongest recycling programs are in place in Washington state and California.
According to the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, a nonprofit research and educational organization in Minneapolis, some towns across the country have passed ordinances requiring recovery of construction and renovation debris.
In Atherton, Calif., 50 percent of waste from demolition projects must be recycled or diverted from landfills.
