What if any methods do you utilize for recycling, or otherwise keeping debris out of the landfill, on your jobs?
Currently we take any salvageable material to the local Habitat for Humanity Restore, items like broken up concrete are dispersed of in other ways, we re-use some old framing for blocking etc.
Still it’s not much of an effort on our part and I’d like to find other ways to recycle the debris inherent in our business.
I’ve never considered myself much of an environmentalist nor a “tree hugger”, yet I keep thinking about how wasteful and stupid it is for us to take otherwise “good” items like sinks, cabinets, fixtures, etc to the landfill, that’s where the HFH Re-Store comes into play.
But what about framing, trim, insulation, copper, etc that comes out? Anyone else have methods of recycling or otherwise promoting sustainability in their business?
Replies
Copper---- well at todays prices that's a no brainer, & under lock & key.
Ideal situation on some of my highrises is 4 dumpsters, metal, wood, sheetrock, & trash.
Highrise in heavy urban areas is a logistics nightmare with trash & material unloading.
Some things make no sense---- I was remodeling a Target store & they threw away a lot of usable items, mainly shelving & some really good carts with nice casters.
We grabbed a couple of the carts ( heavy duty, not shopping carts) out of the trash & was using on site to haul some of our heavier items around.
Target district manager came by & saw what we were using & blew a gasket----- anybody getting caught taking something out of the dumpster will be removed from site on the spot.
I'd have gone a step above the district manager at that point, that's probably after I was "removed from the job-site"
Do you seperate the "metals", anything particular metals not allowed?
I've heard of recycling Gypsun, never heard of anywhere local to take it though.
On our jobs metal is metal, not uncommon to find some copper scrap, but if that's in plain view almost anybody will grab it & stuff it in their lunch box.
“The Hand of providence has been so conspicuous in all this, that he must be worse than an infidel that lacks faith, and more than wicked, that has not gratitude enough to acknowledge his obligations.†—George Washington
Since we don't do much new build we don't have a pile of 3' 2Xs or stuff like that often. But it is 4' long or longer we keep it around and it gets used. Copper, aluminum scraps etc. we keep in barrels and every month or so we have the shop guy take them in and buy lunch with the money.
In the new shop we are going to set up a wood burner in the shop area to burn clean lumber scraps, pallets and cardboard. This will lower our dump bills and we will pick up some heat in the shop where we don't normally heat it unless we have a shop project, which is rare. DanT
I accumulate a lot of cardboard which gets recycled. I also take apart the old aluminum sliding doors and recycle....as well as aluminum storm doors. But the latest twist on recycling I like the best is called Freecycle. http://www.freecycle.org/It gives others the chance to reuse the stuff I was throwing away. I removed some 10' columns, rotten at the bottom, that would work great for 8'....I got 7 emails in twenty minutes! Old sashes and full lite door panels make great cold frames for a garden. One guy took about twenty old full lite doors that were headed for the landfill. So now, instead of throwing the doors in the dumpster, I stack them up and list on Freecycle..View Image
the freecycle is similiar to the Habitat for Humanity Restore.
For us it's win-win, don't have to pay the landfill, it's closer then the landfill, and customers love the idea when I tell them, plus they get the donation reciept.
drywall scrap.... all of it gets glued to the back side of any drywall already hung... a few large tubes of construction glue goes a long way... sound will really be down between rooms... only the smallest gets tossed...
p
just curious, how do you access the back of drywall if it's already hung?
i have a 30" tall hispanic guy that is under 30lbs as long as it's a 6" wall he can climb in and out like it's nothing....
key word was between rooms...
p
"Waste isn't waste until it's wasted," is the local salvage/recycling business' tagline.
Treehugger or not, I too have a really hard time throwing things away. It really does seem stupid to landfill resources--which is what wood/metal/some plastics/house parts/and lots of different 'debris' really are.
I'm small time--and my open dump trailer becomes a recycling center while on the job. I just sort things as I go. Make piles that I can easily and quickly get to when I go to the dump--and it's recycling center. Toss all the recyclables in the bins--metal, plastic, paper. I give the salvage company any useful house part--doors/windows/hardware and I'm sure to get a recpt' and value for the items. Then I take the wood and get rid of it all for 2.5$ a yard at the landscape place--they take any brush, soil, concrete, block whatever, too. They make pellet stove fuel from the wood and take anything--PT, Painted, whatever...
The most expensive thing to get rid of is trash so the less of it the better I do.
As far as anything else goes--metal is the easiest to get rid of for free, but if you'll have a lot of it from one job, you can make money on it. I removed a steel carport and sold off the steel to salvage for about 150$ Not bad for one stop on the way to the lumberyard. Copper and especially ALum. are worth much much more.
Sorting as you go so that stuff is ready to go is the trick.
Cheers,
Pat
I do small jobs, so it's not a big problem. The local municipality has a recycle depot for metal, oil, electronics, brush, plastic containers, glass containers, paper, and cardboard. I separate any of that and haul it there. Just about anything else goes in the regular trash. Paint is special - it's considered hazardous material. A few years ago, I could dump it all into a 5 gallon bucket and take that to a disposal site when it was full. Now, it all has to be in "original containers", so I dump hardener in it and toss the result in the trash.
HFH doesn't take paint in this area.
Yeah, I've often thought that a lot of the landfilled wood products could at least be burned for heat/power.
You're right, it could. Around here, they'll recycle trees and brush, but they're afraid that nails and bolts will tear up their chipper (which is the size of a semi-trailer), so they won't take lumber.George Patterson
We gather up the beer cans every day and take 'em in for a few pennies.
Beer money.
If your view never changes you're following the wrong leader
When I worked for myself, I simply made a pile of unusable lumber cut-off, and then let the neighbors know it was okay to take it. The neighbors that had fireplaces used it for fire wood. Everybody seemed to want the rafter tail cut-offs the most. The pile was usually gone within 1-2 days. I never had to haul any wood, although there wasn’t much of it to begin with. Minimizing waste begins with a well thought out cut-list.
Everything besides wood was taken to the local recycling bin (mostly packaging), right down to the metal bands from off the lumber.
-T