One of the ways to help make today’s construction more green is by minimizing construction waste and recycling. I’ve been writing a Total House Construction Series – Foundation to Finish on my other blog and I took a picture of the pile of waste that’s been generated in the first week of construction.
If you look closely at the pile of construction waste you might be surprised at the size. I’d like to think this is a very small pile of construction waste compared to most job sites. One of the reasons this pile is so small is due to really good planning and ordering of materials. I spent the time to order beams, joists and framing materials that were as close in length as possible to the required materials.
This pile of construction waste will be separated into two piles. One pile will contain traditional dimensional lumber which can be burned or composted. The other pile will contain engineered lumber and plastics that need to be disposed of properly. It’s very important not to burn engineered lumber because of the adhesives and chemicals contained in them.
We will also recycle cardboard and plastic containers on this job. By separating the construction waste and recycling as much as possible we’ll be able to reduce the amount of construction waste that enters the landfill by 50% or more.
I applaud your efforts to minimize your construction waste! One thing that we did (and continue to do throughout our construction)over at http://www.greenlabron.com is to send our dimensional lumber to a recycler for shredding. The shredded lumber will be returned to us for use as mulch in our yard. But we think we took it a step or two further by also recycling the bare lumber in the house we tore down and the lumber of two trees that we had to remove (because of the tree’s condition not because of the construction). We believe we’ll end up saving several thousand dollars in mulch cost. You can read more details about our house deconstruction in my blog attached to http://www.greenlabron.com.