Land recycling is the reuse of abandoned, vacant, or underused properties for redevelopment or repurposing. It aims to ensure the reuse of developed land as part of new developments; cleaning up contaminated properties; and reuse and/or making use of used land surrounded by development or nearby infrastructure. End-uses from land recycling may include: mixed-use, residential, commercial, or industrial developments; and/or public open space such as urban open space used by urban parks, community gardens; or larger open space reserves such as regional parks. Since many abandoned and underutilized properties lie within economically distressed and disadvantaged communities, land recycling often benefits and stimulates re-investment in historically underserved areas. However, due to the previous use of these sites, there can be many health hazards when dealing with the land, such as metals, plastics, asbestos, glass shards, gas generation, and radioactive substances. Such environmentally distressed properties, with site clean-up and mitigation considerations, are commonly referred to as brownfields.
Types
Adaptive building The most common form of land recycling is the redevelopment of abandoned or unused building properties. Adaptive building is the development of an old abandoned building to repurpose it into a new building design and/or new purpose. Saving the old buildings and reusing the materials within the buildings is considered more environmentally sustainable than building all new structure with new materials. This repurposing of materials in the existing adaption or to a different building site could include wood, metals, roofing, brick, etc. and would provide products for new projects to prevent excessive waste. Site disruptions are also decreased due to less destruction and building. The adaptive process also provides a more sustainable way to promote environmentally friendly infrastructure. It also reduces the amount of pollutants that can contaminate the soil and water around the abandoned building. This can be particularly beneficial when repurposing buildings that are near schools, residential neighborhoods, or other workplaces by mitigating occupational hazards from such contaminants commonly found in construction. This is considered more economically friendly when accounting for direct and indirect cost savings to the construction company and to the building owner. The cost of producing new materials and the services that come with manufacturing these products are much more costly than repurposing existing buildings.
Brownfield redevelopment The EPA classifies a brownfield as "A brownfield is a property, the expansion, redevelopment, or reuse of which may be complicated by the presence or potential presence of a hazardous substance, pollutant, or contaminant." Currently in the United States there are more than 450,000 brownfields, which when improved have been shown to improve the surrounding environmental stress. Funding for these hazardous sites may be obtained through the EPA's Brownfields and Land Revitalization Program which empowers municipalities, landholders, and land developers to safely clean up and repurpose the land.
Non-infrastructure redevelopment Land recycling can also include those spaces that are not within urbanized environments are involve a building. Agricultural reuse is a very important part of land reuse where an existing field might have been abandoned due to nutrient depletion, and can be developed into something else. In addition to this the redevelopment of underutilized land into parks, community gardens and open space reservoirs are also prominent.
Other terms
Other commonly used terms can relate to or serve as synonyms of land recycling:
Infill development: development that takes place within existing communities, making maximum use of the existing infrastructure instead of building on previously undeveloped land; Sustainable development: Development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs; and Brownfield development: development of real property for which its reuse may be complicated by the presence or potential presence of a hazardous substance, pollutant or contaminant.
Benefits
Social and economic revitalization Land recycling helps clean up and revitalize inner cities by returning abandoned, idle, or underused sites to productive use, bolstering community spirit, creating jobs and boosting local tax revenues. The re-use of land revitalizes communities and renews economic activity, particularly in underserved urban areas. Abandoned, idled, and vacant properties often lie in former industrial and commercial areas, typically in urban and historically disadvantaged areas. These sites can be community eyesores, negatively impacting social and economic development, and often human and environmental health. The failure to redevelop brownfields in particular translates into potentially more exposure to toxins and the loss of economic and housing benefits that can come from appropriate redevelopment. By putting these properties to new and productive use, land recycling encourages growth of businesses and services in such areas, helping to break up concentrations of poverty, creating jobs, and stimulating additional private investment and local tax revenue. An abandoned, well-situated, factory site can be cleaned up and redeveloped into a much-needed mixed-use development with a grocery store, senior housing, and access to public transportation. The addition of neighborhood-serving retail, affordable housing, or a clean public park in a disadvantaged community can boost local spirit and improve overall quality of life.
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