This Week's Tip!

"By joining a local or worldwide recycling program you can help save millions of tons of recyclable products from being dumped into overcrowded landfills." Paul Winans, Facilitator and Consultant Remodelers Advantage

Recycling Project Waste

Here at Remodelers Advantage, we have many lively conversations within our learning community taking place at meetings and on the peer forum. Below is a forum post from one of our members, Andy Ault at Little River Carpentry in Laurel, Maryland.

Between cabinets, appliances, plumbing & lighting fixtures, etc. cardboard is hands down the largest recyclable coming out of our sites. We went to our roll-off provider and worked out a deal where they give us two 10 yard containers for the same price we would normally pay for a single 20 yard (even though it means an extra truck run, delivery time, etc. for them). Business is slow for them and they were interested in creating a new market opportunity so it wasn't a very hard sell.

We then dedicate one to cardboard only and hang banners (made a Kinkos) on the side of the can letting everyone know what goes in there. We also sent letters to all of our trades when we implemented the program asking them to inform any of their field crews about the new policy. We monitor the cans and if anything other than cardboard goes in there, the offending trade gets to go pull it out. That usually only happens once before they get on board with the concept.

So other than the initial cost for a few poly banners and the time to get it up and going, the program doesn't cost us anything extra but we get all the environmental and marketing benefits from it. We've even had neighbors make positive comments when they see the banners on the designated unit.

We also use a local second hand building materials store to donate any appliances, cabinets, counter tops, windows, etc that we can pull out in good shape. In addition to keeping it out of a landfill (which we like) it gets the client a 501c3 donation receipt for their taxes (which they love).

On smaller jobs that don't need (can't fit) a pair of 10 yarders, we just break down the cardboard and set it out with the client's weekly curbside recycling since all of the municipalities in our area have good programs for that. The clients are usually happy to give us a space to store it until collection day because they agree with the concept and sometimes they'll even take it out for us (bonus!).

We haven't had any luck yet finding a home for everything else (metals, plastics -- i.e. drywall buckets! -- and scrap wood). Unless you have large volume, no one seems interested in working with us for those items. We also belong to the USGBC (United States Green Building Council) and one of the board members there runs the commercial program for LEED projects for Waste Management International. He's trying to see what he can develop for smaller residential projects, but doesn't have anything together yet.

Bottom Line: Do you recycle project waste on your job sites such as appliances, furniture, or finish materials like doors and windows? Have you coordinated your recycling efforts with local recycling services? The fact is, many of our resources as well as our Earth are not renewable and we have to start taking control beginning with the world we live in. 

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