exceeding $25,000 (including construction and demolition) must recycle materials generated onsite (U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 2000). The new firms are also imaginatively leveraging other incentives related to the growing market value of recycled materials. Many of the new firmslike Primdahls Portland company and Minneapoliss Green Instituteare non-profits. This allows private owners who contract with them for deconstruction services to get tax deductions worth the value of recovered materials donated to the programme. The owner of one large house was charged $18,000 for the deconstruction and earned a tax deduction of about $53,000 for the value of the donated materials. A 1,200-square-foot house typically can claim from $5,000 to $8,000 (Seldman & Jackson, 2000). The emergence of the Used Building Materials Association (UBMA), founded in 1996, has been a immense help in creating stronger markets especially for reused materials. The non-profit association has worked tirelessly to promote government, corporate and consumer purchase of reused materials; it has provided guidance for those wishing to set up new firms in the area; it has been involved in developing codes and standards for deconstruction; it has been encouraged technological development in the sector; and it has helped create building materials exchange information facilities (Used Building Materials Association (UBMA), 2003). As of late 2000, there were well over 200 used building material retailers in the US and Canada with the number growing rapidly (U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 2000). In Chapters VI and VII, I will return to the role of government in levelling the economic playing field and in creating new green markets, but here we must at least mention the crucial role of government in supporting deconstruction and recycling