Recycling Ideas

orson

How do you guys go about recycling jobsite materials? I'm trying to formulate an efficeint way for my company to recycle waste. Basicaly I'm running into a wall w/ the trash hauling companies. They are willing to run certain products to recyclers but I would basicaly have to have multiple dumpsters on site, or have dumpsters sitting somewhere that I could slowly fill w/ specific recyclables. Unfortunately I don't have any place to stage dumpsters like this.

What types of programs or methods have you folks worked with successfully?

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Lancaster Kitchen Remodeling
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Alwaysconfusd11

I’m small time, so actual trash goes in the dumpster, and I just take the metal to the scrap yard after the job, it’s only about a 10 minute drive, and maybe half an hr while at the yard. If its a small job I will just store it until I have enough and then run it over.I average about 110 per job so it’s worth the drive, and I get to pride myself with saving the environment .

leadarrows

Do you know you have a drywall recycle company less than 12 miles from you in the town of Mount Joy?
Sourcing at the job site is the most economical way of getting the materials separate enough to be recycled.
I own a drywall recycling business in Indiana and I know if I had to sort out other material I couldn't make a profit.

Here is a link to the contact page of that drywall recycling business in your area.

http://gypsumagricycle.com/CompanyInfo/index.html

I know it's not what you ask for but you are searching for the same answers that we all are looking for while trying to go green on our job sites and so far the answers are hard to come by.
Separate containers is only the start of the fight. Now get all your subs to put things in the right ones....once you win that fight now you still have the fight of keeping other stuff out. If you haven't already done so you might join your local chapter of The U.S. Green Building Council. They might have some suggestions for you. Your local chapters can be found @

http://www.dvgbc.org/

And http://www.gbacpa.org/

I hope this helps.

__________________
I started out with nothing, and I still have most of it.

orson

I am aware there is a drywall recycling center in Mount Joy as well as I believe 2 companies that will take scrap wood. What I can't figure out is how to get the scrap to the places that will take them. If I run each material from each job to the scrapper I'll lose money on every job spending all that time and fuel running this stuff. It also becomes questionable as to the environmental impact when you're running small quantities like that. I guess what I don't understand is why there arent' trash/dumpster companies that are offering compartmented dumpsters to seperate recyclables. It would, at least in theory, actually save them money if they could haul full dumpsters of recyclables to the appropriate recycler rather than just hauling everything to the landfill.

toolwiz93

I think somebody hit the nail on the head, if you are a small guy it is all about taking some pride in doing the right thing. We try to do cardboard/paper products and different metals. It is amazing the amount of cardboard used in building just one house. Sometimes for the metals it will take a few jobs before it is worth it. I like the idea of a specific location to recycle building materials. Since there is this push for green building we should have green clean-up. Local trash companies could be taking the lead in this, after all it is there business. The lumber issue to me is a little clouded, I have never understand all the wood waste that comes from building. We save any block of wood over 6" throughout the job, by the end there is nothing left. If builders would put the wood that is thrown away and actually use it for blocking or other things, maybe a better house would be built. As was already stated recycling is a delicate balance. You have to have the right quantity or the environment still gets hurt by running trucks up and down the road.

al10fred1081

to separate the materials I just built crates that fit in the utility trailer. I have a bunch of recycling centers near me and I end up just moving the crates between jobs until they're full or sorting the trash and the metal out back at the yard. The only thing I recycle is metal and vinyl though. if we have a concrete tear out the concrete company takes the dumpster for free and I use a dumpster truck for everything else. Locally it usually ends up at the incinerator which produces energy. So I get a clear conscience all the way around. I usually end up getting about 600 for a 6x12 crate of aluminum. when I was doing a lot of sunrooms we made a killing on it.

Alex

orson

I was thinking of doing something like this where I built my own containers that fit on a trailer. Then I could make perhaps one round trip to several different businesses and a scrapyard that would recycle all the materials. I would still be looking at about a significant round trip to drop the stuff at different places. As far as I have been able to ascertain there is no such thing as a "recycling center" in my area, so I would have to make 1 stop for gypsum, 1 stop for cardboard, 1 stop for woodscrap, 1 stop for metals, and 1 stop at the landfill. Given the distances from each of these stops the round trip might take half a day or more. Of course, that assumes that I actually came up with a trailer which I don't have, nor do I have anywhere to put the trailer when I'm not using it.

trayner

I have been running into the same problems concerning recycling. There is no place local to take wood scraps, drywall, roofing, siding etc. I am considering opening a recycle center in my area. There is much homework to do to be sure this endeavor would be economically viable. I believe the key is to find local companies to process the waste materials to keep transport fuel cost low. The other more capital intensive option would be to process the waste materials at the recycle center and sell the processed materials to local manufacturers.

I believe that the California state government has mandated that at least 50% of all waste materials from renovation projects must be recycled and not buried in a landfill. As everybody knows, what starts in California usually makes its way to our neck of the woods, especially since our landfills are reaching capacity, and no one wants a new landfill in their neighborhood.

I would be interested to hear your thoughts and suggestions concerning a recycle center. Would you be willing to pay, say half the cost, for a dumpster full of waste, separated by material, delivered by a dumpster trucking company to a recycle center? Or pay no fee if you deliver separated materials to a recycle center.