There has been a steadily growing interest in waste removal and waste management throughout the years. We’ve heard phrases like “reduce, reuse, and recycle”, watched large companies make pledges to reduce their carbon footprints, and have seen the news articles about solar energy. “Going green” is more than a trend, however – there are real benefits to waste management on jobs sites.
On construction sites, waste management is especially important. There is incentive for recycling. Small pieces can be reused on the job site itself, and scrap can often be traded in bulk for bonus profit at the end of a project.
Here are a few other tips to reduce wasted materials on a construction site:
1. When possible, opt for deconstruction instead of demolition
Your team will have more opportunity to reuse or resell materials with a tear down. Windows in good condition, copper wire, and pieces of large lumber can be sold to salvaging sites. Even smaller scraps can potentially be repurposed on the job.
More importantly, you’ll end up sending significantly less material to the landfill.
2. Make a scrap pile for reuse
How often do construction workers use every inch of a piece of lumber, conduit, or pipe in one day? Leftover pieces of a usable size can be kept in scrap piles to be picked through the next time an item is needed.
This is a money saver as well as a time saver! If the perfect length piece of material is already in the scrap pile, there’s no need to cut a new one.
3. Donate unneeded materials
If your job site happens to contain some high demand items, you may be able to donate them. Doors, household appliances, and hardware are all good candidates for donations. Donating reduces your construction site’s environmental impact by repurposing items that would otherwise be disposed of, but they’re also eligible for a tax write off.
4. Rent a dumpster
Of course, some wasted materials on a construction site is inevitable. You may not be able to save every piece of scrap – but you can still rent a dumpster to save time!
Companies like Priority Waste Inc offer dumpster rental services that simplify debris disposal. By outsourcing waste management to another company, you can:
- Better organize materials on site, by ensuring debris is properly disposed of in a timely manner.
- Save time on the job site by reducing the amount of hours spent on job site clean up and trips to the landfill.
- Hire professionals to deal with difficult to dispose of waste products, including tires, asbestos, biohazardous material, and more.
Not all dumpster rental services provide the same benefits, but many share common goals: providing communities with cleaner environments and making communities safer by handling hazardous waste.
In spite of how messy construction sites can be, they don’t have to damage the environment around them. A job site that is completely free of construction waste isn’t likely, but an environmentally conscious website that carefully reuses, recycles, and properly disposes of debris is.
