Estimates for construction waste generation are often based on per capita multipliers in much the same way as municipal solid waste estimates. This has lead to estimation rates with more than 10-fold variation and little confidence in the resulting estimates. A methodology is offered in this paper that bases construction waste estimates on the financial value of building permits for a variety of types of construction projects. In this way, estimates reflect actual construction activity more closely and are based on a detailed and widely available database from the U.S. Census Bureau. A case study estimating gypsum wallboard waste generation for a region of the United States is described. The case study results were used in the decision-making process by a wallboard manufacturing plant interested in the development of a regional gypsum wallboard recycling programme. © 1996 ISWA
