Fact Sheet · v1
Building better, by the numbers.
Construction is the world's largest industry and one of its biggest sources of waste, emissions, and raw-material extraction. The figures below are the ones we cite most often — each with its primary source. Curated, not exhaustive.
Scale & opportunity
Construction is the world's largest industry by spend. Materials are a large share of every project budget, and some of what is bought never gets installed.
- 01$15.2T
projected global construction output in 2030 (2017 prices), up 42% from 2020.
- 02$2.2T
U.S. construction spending, seasonally adjusted annual rate, August 2026.
- 03~$43B
estimated annual U.S. value of re-marketable surplus building goods — Unbuilt's curation-eligible TAM.
Unbuilt internal model
Derived from ~$1.08T US materials spend × ~33% unused-goods pool × 12% curation target. Component sources: Circular Online UK (stock-to-waste), Science Direct "Construction Waste" (job-site loss).
Natural resources
Building and construction is the largest draw on raw materials extracted from the earth — sand, stone, timber, ore.
- 01~50%
of global raw-material extraction is driven by buildings and construction — the largest share of any sector.
UNEP / GlobalABC — Global Status Report for Buildings and Construction 2025–2026
- 02~50Btonnes
of sand & gravel extracted globally each year — the most-used solid material, second only to water.
- 0326
small islands in Indonesia's Riau Province destroyed by sea-sand mining before exports were banned.
- 04~1M
plant and animal species threatened with extinction worldwide; changes in land and sea use are the leading direct driver.
The reuse gap
Apparel, furniture, electronics, and cars all have established secondary markets. Construction — by far the largest material category by weight — does not.
- 0114%
of contractors' surplus products were reused directly on another project. The rest were set aside in storage, left with the owner, sent back to be downcycled, or discarded — in a 2021 survey of 23 San Francisco contractors.
SF Dept. of the Environment — Surplus Building Products Study (2021)
- 020of 23
contractors sold their surplus. One returned some to the supplier for resale; four donated to reuse organizations.
SF Dept. of the Environment — Surplus Building Products Study (2021)
- 03~⅓
of contractors' surplus product types are never used even once — discarded (22%) or sent back to the manufacturer for recycling (9%).
SF Dept. of the Environment — Surplus Building Products Study (2021)
Affordability
Housing costs have grown far faster than incomes since 1960, and material costs jumped in the early 2020s. Reuse is one of the few cost levers buyers actually control.
- 015.0×
median U.S. home price to median household income in 2024 — on par with the 2022 record. The ratio averaged 3.2 in the 1990s.
- 02+41%
rise in U.S. building material costs over the five years to late 2023.
- 03+160%
rise in average homeowner housing costs since 1960, inflation-adjusted; homeowner incomes rose 60% over the same period.
- 0450%
of U.S. renter households — a record 22.6M — were cost-burdened (30%+ of income on housing) in 2023.
Harvard JCHS — The State of the Nation's Housing 2025
The share was about 25% in 1960 (NIBS 2024 Housing Report).
Climate
Embodied carbon — the emissions from extracting, manufacturing, and shipping building materials — is locked in before a building is occupied. Operational efficiency cannot undo it.
- 01~37%
of global carbon emissions come from the buildings and construction sector.
UNEP / GlobalABC — Global Status Report for Buildings and Construction 2025–2026
- 029%
of global emissions in 2024 came from the cement, steel, and aluminium used in buildings alone.
UNEP / GlobalABC — Global Status Report 2025–2026 (IEA data)
- 03~80%
less embodied carbon, on average, in floor systems built from reused concrete instead of new — up to 94% when reused steel is added.
EPFL — Küpfer, Bertola & Fivet, Journal of Cleaner Production (2024)
Construction waste
The U.S. generates twice as much construction and demolition debris as household trash. What isn't landfilled is mostly crushed into aggregate — national statistics have no category for goods reused intact.
- 012×
as much construction & demolition debris as household and commercial trash: ~600M tons vs. ~292M tons in the U.S. in 2018.
- 02~145Mtons
of U.S. construction & demolition debris went to landfill in 2018 — about as much as all household and commercial trash landfilled that year (~146M tons).
- 03~455Mtons
of U.S. construction & demolition debris was directed to a "next use" in 2018 — mostly as aggregate.
U.S. EPA — Sustainable Management of C&D Materials
EPA's "next use" categories are fuel, manufactured products, aggregate, compost and mulch, and soil amendment. None is reuse of an intact product.
- 04~$543B
projected size of the global construction waste management services market by 2028 (2022 forecast).
Supply chain & resilience
Tariffs, lumber shortages, port delays, and post-disaster reconstruction all strain the long supply chain that delivers most U.S. building materials.
- 0116,000+
structures — including 11,600+ homes — destroyed across the two January 2025 Los Angeles wildfires.
- 02$250–275B
preliminary estimate of total damage and economic loss from the January 2025 LA wildfires.
- 03+$10,900
builders' estimate of the typical added cost per U.S. home from recent tariff actions.
Where materials come from
Heavy commodities — concrete, lumber, aggregate — are mostly produced domestically, so construction materials look domestic in aggregate. The finishes buyers actually choose tell the opposite story.
- 0193%
of materials used in new U.S. residential construction are domestically sourced — a figure dominated by heavy commodities like concrete, gypsum, and aggregate.
NAHB Eye on Housing — Import Data for Residential Construction
- 02~72%
of ceramic tile used in the U.S. in 2025 was imported (top sources by volume: Spain, Italy, India).
Tile Council of North America — 2025 U.S. Ceramic Tile Market Update
- 03~85%
of U.S. granite consumption was imported in 2025 (net import reliance); 81% for all dimension stone.
U.S. building stock
Demolition and renovation generate the supply side of a reuse market. Deconstruction instead of demolition can cut site waste by up to 70%.
- 01~105M
U.S. residential buildings (~100M single-family homes + ~5.2M multifamily buildings).
- 02~5.9M
U.S. commercial & industrial buildings.
- 03~1.5M
U.S. housing units completed per year, 2023–2025 average.
- 04Upto 70%
less construction-site waste when a building is deconstructed instead of demolished.
Comparable markets
Other consumer categories already proved that resale scales. Construction is late, not unprecedented.
- 0162%
of Gen Z and Millennials look for an item secondhand before buying new.
- 02~10%
of global apparel spend was secondhand in 2025.
- 03$22B
projected U.S. home-furnishings resale market by 2027 — about 5% of a $477B category.
- 04~25%
of online purchases were returned in 2024, vs. ~9% of in-store purchases.
- 05Upto 44%
of returned clothing in the EU never reaches a second buyer (22–44%, depending on how returns are handled).
Ben-Gurion University study, Resources, Conservation & Recycling (2024), via Ecommerce News EU
Unbuilt today
Cumulative results through September 2025, scored by the same engine that runs on every live listing. See how we count.
Sources & methodology
Inline citations link to the primary source. Unbuilt's own figures come from our 4-metric scoring system applied to every transaction. See how we count for the formula, data sources (ICE v4 primary, EC3 secondary), boundary (A1–A4), and per-row honesty tier.
Fact sheet v1.0 · last reviewed October 1, 2026. Spot an error or know a better source? hello@unbuilt.co