Any construction project, no matter how small, will always produce waste – that’s just a fact that we all know and are aware of. But if you have a building and construction project, you need not have such a difficult time dealing with the waste it produces. In fact, you can take advantage of a few tried and tested ways to reduce building and construction project waste. The following are a few:
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Make an estimate of how much your building and construction project will produce in terms of waste, and how much it will cost to have this waste removed or done away with in different ways – whether it’s through traditional collection as rubbish, recycling, salvaging, reusing, and even reselling. You may be pleasantly surprised to learn that you can even make money from the waste produced by your project; there are many individuals involved in construction who are constantly looking for cheap building materials, and you can now easily sell some of your materials online. Alternatively, you can use online sites to look for cheap materials for your own project as well – a good way to save money on both ends.
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Make sure your recycled materials are sorted together by category, such as paper or cardboard, wood, metal, concrete, plastics, and so on. Whilst it’s friendlier to the environment if you categorise the waste produced by your project, it can be more cost-effective as well. This is because contamination between materials is reduced, and the materials’ value can remain intact, thereby reducing the sorting expense of recyclers.
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Avoid throwing away materials even when the project ends – you never know when these materials can be used again for future work, and some materials, such as windows, doors, concrete, and so on, can even be sold to construction industry players who can make use of them for their own projects. One more tip: rather than throwing away various metal and wood scraps, keep and store them at fabricating and cutting locations so you can use them as test pieces.
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Keep in mind that trees as well as their branches which have been cleared from a construction and building project can be used as mulch for landscaping.
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If you have additional or extra insulation in your building and construction project, don’t throw these away. These can be used inside wall cavities in the interior of buildings or above the loft or attic rather than thrown away.
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If you can, avoid using too much finish, adhesive, laminate, as well as other coatings as they can limit certain items’ recyclability and reusability.
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If you can, you should also limit building support systems which will only be used temporarily, as they are often simply discarded when a project is finished.
