Construction waste management plan, diversion rate, and what LEED actually scores.

What the plan is for

A construction waste management plan, often called a CWMP, is the project’s written method for keeping construction and demolition debris out of a landfill. It names the materials, the haulers, the facilities, the diversion goal, and the way weight will be tracked. It is a project document. It is not a hauler brochure, and it is not the same thing as a municipal recycling ordinance, though the ordinance may require the plan before a permit is issued.

Construction and demolition debris is not municipal solid waste. EPA estimated that 600 million tons of C&D debris were generated in the United States in 2018, more than twice the municipal solid waste generated that year. Demolition was over 90 percent of that C&D generation, and construction was under 10 percent. Concrete was the largest material. Those figures are 2018 data, from EPA’s C&D debris material page and the 2018 Advancing Sustainable Materials Management fact sheet. The material table, with the data year on each row, is on waste and recycling statistics. They are national generation, not a diversion rate, and not a Detritus volume.

What a CWMP has to contain

LEED v4.1 BD+C makes the plan a prerequisite, not an optional credit. The rating system text, July 2020, requires the project to develop and implement a construction and demolition waste management plan that does three things:

• Set waste diversion goals by identifying at least five materials, both structural and nonstructural, targeted for diversion.
• Say whether materials will be separated or commingled, describe the diversion strategies, say where the material will be taken, and say how the recycling facility will process it, including the expected diversion rate for each material stream.
• Provide a final report of all major waste streams generated, including disposal and diversion rates.

Alternative daily cover does not count as diversion. Material destined for alternative daily cover is included in the calculations as waste. Land-clearing debris is not construction, demolition, or renovation waste that can contribute to diversion. Source: U.S. Green Building Council, LEED v4.1 BD+C rating system, July 2020, MR Prerequisite: Construction and Demolition Waste Management Planning. The same prerequisite applies to New Construction, Core and Shell, Schools, Retail, Data Centers, Warehouses and Distribution Centers, Hospitality, and Healthcare.

A plan that a city will accept, and a plan that a LEED reviewer will accept, both need the hauler and the facility named before the debris leaves the site. A goal with no facility is a sentence, not a plan.

Diversion rate

Use one unit for the whole project, weight or volume. Do not mix them. Weight is the unit a scale ticket already uses, and it is the unit to prefer when the receiving facility reports in tons.

The rate is diverted material divided by total construction and demolition material:

Diversion rate = diverted ÷ (diverted + disposed) × 100.

Diverted material is what was recycled, salvaged, reused, or donated. Wood waste converted to fuel counts. Other waste-to-energy does not count as diversion for a project in the United States. Disposed material includes landfill, incineration, and alternative daily cover. Alternative daily cover sits in the denominator and not in the numerator. Excavated soil and land-clearing debris stay out of both. Hazardous waste is outside this credit: the credit is for nonhazardous construction and demolition materials. Source: the same July 2020 rating system, MR Credit: Construction and Demolition Waste Management, and the LEED v4.1 BD+C guide, July 2020, which tells project teams to calculate the rate during the job, not only at the end.

An illustration, not a project

These tons are round numbers chosen so the arithmetic is visible. They are not a Detritus job, and they are not a typical project.

Diverted is 70 tons. Disposed is 30 tons. Total is 100 tons. The diversion rate is 70 percent, from five source-separated streams. Under the LEED v4.1 BD+C paths below, 70 percent clears the 50 percent paths and misses the 75 percent paths. Five streams is more than the three streams the 75 percent path requires. The stream count does not rescue a rate that is short.

A commingled load sent to one mixed-recycling processor counts as one stream, even if that facility later separates wood, drywall, and cardboard. The v4.1 guide is explicit: each source-separated material sent to a processor of that material is one stream; material sent to a commingled facility is one stream. Off-site sorting counts as multiple streams only when the materials are separated before processing and each separated material is measured and sent to its own processor. Trash, alternative daily cover, and incineration are never streams.

LEED v4.1 BD+C

The points credit is separate from the plan. The July 2020 rating system gives 1 or 2 points. Calculations may be by weight or volume, and they must be consistent. Excavated soil and land-clearing debris are excluded. Alternative daily cover is waste, not diversion. Wood converted to fuel is included. Other waste-to-energy is not diversion for this credit, with a narrow path for some international projects that the rating system spells out and that this page does not restate.

Source: U.S. Green Building Council, LEED v4.1 BD+C rating system, July 2020, MR Credit: Construction and Demolition Waste Management, including Table 1. The July 25, 2019 addenda replaced an earlier path numbering (1a, 1b, 2a, 2b) with Paths 1 through 4 and set the Option 2 generation thresholds. That addenda is in the LEED v4.1 BD+C addenda table, first edition, July 2020. Residential multifamily uses its own credit text. Do not copy a multifamily scorecard onto a BD+C project.

LEED v4 BD+C

A project registered under LEED v4 is reviewed against the v4 credit, not the v4.1 table above. v4 splits the same subject into a required plan and a points credit. The plan prerequisite asks the team to set diversion goals, identify at least five materials targeted for diversion, say whether material will be separated or commingled, describe where it will go and how the facility will process it, and turn in a final report with disposal and diversion rates. Alternative daily cover is not diversion. Land-clearing debris does not contribute.

On the v4 points credit, Path 1 is one point for diverting at least 50 percent of the total construction and demolition material, in at least three material streams. Path 2 is two points for diverting at least 75 percent, in at least four material streams. Option 2 is two points for not generating more than 2.5 pounds of construction waste per square foot of the building’s floor area. Those are tighter stream counts, and a tighter generation cap, than the v4.1 BD+C paths in the table above. Source: U.S. Green Building Council, LEED v4 for Building Design and Construction, current through the July 25, 2019 addenda, MR Prerequisite: Construction and Demolition Waste Management Planning, and MR Credit: Construction and Demolition Waste Management. Read the credit for the rating system the project is registered under before the goal is written into the plan.

Municipal C&D ordinances, in general

There is no national construction-and-demolition ordinance. Cities, counties, and some states attach waste rules to the building or demolition permit. The pattern is stable even when the percentage is not. The permit application asks for a plan. The plan names the streams, the hauler, and the facility. The jurisdiction sets either a diversion percentage, a cap on disposal per square foot, or both. Haulers or facilities may have to be registered. Weight tickets, or a final report, come back before the certificate of occupancy or before a deposit is released. EPA describes that pattern, with local examples, in its Transforming Waste Tool.

The percentages are local, and they are not interchangeable with a LEED path. A job can meet the city and miss LEED, or the other way around, because the exclusions differ. Three examples EPA has published, so the spread is visible:

• Austin, Texas. EPA’s case study says the city council in 2015 required projects of more than 5,000 square feet of new, added, or remodeled floor area to reuse or recycle at least 50 percent of the construction debris, or to dispose of no more than 2.5 pounds per square foot. Source: EPA, Contract Language Case Study: Austin, TX.
• San Francisco. EPA says the city requires source-separated C&D debris to go to a facility that reuses or recycles it, and mixed C&D debris to go to a registered facility with an overall minimum recycling rate of 65 percent. The same note says the city prohibits C&D debris from going to the landfill or into the garbage. Source: EPA Transforming Waste Tool, item 67.
• California’s statewide floor, which cities administer through the permit. EPA says CALGreen, effective January 2017, requires covered new construction, demolition, and certain addition and alteration projects to recycle or salvage at least 65 percent of the nonhazardous C&D debris. That is a state code, not a city ordinance. Source: EPA Transforming Waste Tool, item 66.

Those three are illustrations of the kind of rule a permit can carry. They are not a list of where Detritus works, and they are not current law until someone reads the ordinance that applies to the site. Ordinances are amended. This page does not track them. The permit set for the job is the document that controls.

Weight tickets and the final report

The final report is only as good as the tickets behind it. A usable ticket shows the date, the facility, the material, the weight or volume, a ticket number, and whether the load was diverted or disposed. For a commingled facility, the report also needs that facility’s diversion rate for the period the project used it, with alternative daily cover excluded. A facility average that includes alternative daily cover will overstate the project.

Collect tickets by container and by site, not in one folder for the whole company. Recalculate the rate during the job. A rate that is short in month three can still be repaired. A rate discovered at substantial completion usually cannot.

On a Detritus roll-off, disposal weight above the tons included on the quote is billed from the scale ticket. The quote states the rental period, the weight allowance, and how overage is billed. The customer app shows tons included and the additional-tonnage rate on the dumpster. When an overage has been billed, the account also shows additional tons and total tons. Neither shows a ticket number, the receiving facility, or a diversion rate. A tonnage line on an invoice is not a LEED report. Separated streams Detritus coordinates include metal, concrete, plastic, wood pallets, and cardboard. Regulated material is handled separately. Liquids, fuels, batteries, pesticides, and asbestos do not go in a standard roll-off. See dumpster rental and the glossary entries for C&D, tons included, and additional tonnage.

Detritus will assemble a diversion report when the job needs one for LEED documentation or for a municipal construction-and-demolition diversion requirement. The report is compiled from the hauler’s and the receiving facility’s weight tickets and records. It states tons by material stream, tons diverted and tons landfilled, and the diversion rate. It reflects those records. Detritus compiles it and provides it. The project team, for example its LEED AP or administrator, or the permit holder, reviews it and submits it. Detritus does not certify LEED compliance, and does not guarantee that a credit will be awarded or that a permit will be signed off. Detritus is not the project’s LEED AP. Nothing here says a hauler is a certified or registered hauler, or that a facility is certified by the Recycling Certification Institute.

Mistakes that fail a review

• Counting alternative daily cover as diversion.
• Mixing tons and cubic yards in one rate.
• Leaving soil or land-clearing debris in the total.
• Treating one commingled bin as several streams because the facility poster lists several commodities.
• Counting waste-to-energy, other than wood-derived fuel, as diversion on a U.S. project.
• Using a facility recycling rate that includes alternative daily cover, or a rate from a different year than the project.
• Putting hazardous waste into the nonhazardous calculation, or into a standard roll-off.
• Writing the plan after the debris has already been hauled as mixed trash.
• Submitting a final report with no tickets.

Outline

Copy the outline or download the same text. It follows the v4.1 prerequisite: five materials, separated or commingled, facility and expected rate, and a final report. It is a blank. It is not a completed plan, and filling it in does not earn a LEED point.

CONSTRUCTION WASTE MANAGEMENT PLAN
Outline. Fill in the blanks. This is not a completed plan and it is not a LEED submittal.

1. Project
   Name:
   Address:
   Building floor area, if a generation cap applies:
   General contractor:
   Person responsible for the plan and the final report:
   Rating system, if any (LEED v4 BD+C, LEED v4.1 BD+C, or none):
   Credit path being pursued:
   Municipal or state permit requirement, if any (jurisdiction and citation):

2. Diversion goal
   Target diversion rate:
   Minimum number of material streams:
   Unit of measure for the whole plan (weight or volume, one only):

3. Materials targeted for diversion
   List at least five, both structural and nonstructural.
   For each material:
   - Structural or nonstructural:
   - Separated on site, or commingled:
   - Hauler:
   - Receiving facility:
   - How that facility will process the material:
   - Expected diversion rate for this stream:

4. Excluded from the diversion calculation
   Excavated soil:
   Land-clearing debris:
   Hazardous waste (its own paperwork; not part of this rate):

5. Alternative daily cover
   ADC counts as waste, not as diversion.
   Facility rate with ADC removed:

6. On-site handling
   Where bins sit, and who keeps them from being contaminated:
   Streams that change by construction phase:

7. Tracking
   Who collects weight tickets or receipts:
   Fields each ticket must show: date, facility, material, weight or volume, ticket number, diverted or disposed
   Where tickets are filed, by container and by site:
   How often the rate is recalculated before closeout:

8. Final report
   For each major stream: generated, diverted, disposed, rate, facility
   Project diversion rate:
   Material streams that count, and why each one qualifies:
   Tickets attached:

Common questions

What changed

• October 26, 2026. First published. The v4 thresholds are cited to the July 25, 2019 rating-system PDF, and the diversion report Detritus compiles on request is described on this page.
• October 26, 2026. Linked waste and recycling statistics for the 2018 construction and demolition table.

LEED thresholds are from the U.S. Green Building Council documents linked above. The 2018 generation figure is from EPA. Ordinance examples are from EPA’s Transforming Waste Tool and the Austin case study, not from a Detritus survey of city codes. The worked tons are an illustration.