A Large Percentage Of Construction-Site Waste Can Be Recycled

You can tell right away when one of your neighbors is starting a remodeling project. A mammoth metal dumpster appears at the house one morning and squats there unattractively for the duration of the job.

Everything goes in it. Drywall and lumber scraps, spackle buckets, bricks, windows, doors, carpet, shrink-wrap, the pink porcelain potty, 500 Pepsi cans and Slurpee cups, and weird stuff that appears unaccountably in the dead of the night. Then off it all goes to the landfill. It's no wonder that building demolition and construction debris occupies 25 percent of our country's landfill space.

Which is one reason organizers of next weekend's "Building With Value '93" conference in Seattle pose the question, "Can you be an environmentally friendly builder and still make a living?"

A study conducted for the city of Portland's trash utility found that building the average new single-family home generates about four tons of waste material. The researchers were unable to pin down a figure for waste generated by remodeling projects because these vary so enormously. But anyone who has done remodeling knows that it fills up the dumpster pretty quickly, too.

Figures supplied by Waste Age Magazine show types and percentages, by volume, of typical construction waste: 27 percent wood, 18 percent cardboard/paper, 15 percent drywall, 9 percent insulation, 8 percent roofing, 7 percent metal, 6 percent rubble (concrete, brick, asphalt), 5 percent land-clearing debris (earth, sod, brush) and 5 percent miscellaneous.

90 percent can be recycled

Interesting, but not surprising. What may come as a surprise is this: Almost 90 percent of that debris can be reused or recycled. And some of it never need be generated in the first place.

Recycling has become a household word; it's about to become a construction-site word as well. Proponents of resource-efficient construction are suggesting that people in the building trades, and home do-it-yourselfers, apply the three R's to building:

-- Reduce the amount of waste you generate.

-- Reuse what is reusable (or find someone who will).

-- Recycle what's left.

This reduces your material costs and cuts your disposal costs. It frees up landfill space for real trash. And it saves our natural resources.

Jon Alexander, of Sunshine Remodeling, is one Seattle-area contractor who has been doing job-site waste recycling for some time. "The first six months were a total mess," he says. "But now it really works very smoothly. And it saves us money."

At his current job site - a small, new house in the University District - Alexander is recycling concrete debris from a jackhammered driveway, wood (about 1 3/4 tons), sheetrock scraps, copper (wire clippings and pipes), steel (mostly metal strappings from pallets and containers), aluminum odds and ends, cardboard and paper. He expects to save between $250 and $650 in disposal costs.

What goes in Alexander's dumpster? Pink rigid insulation, caulk tubes, paint cans, sheet plastic and leftovers from lunch.

For anyone who has worked in construction, Alexander's level of recycling may seem impossible. But it's not, and there are a growing number of publications out there to help you do it (see accompanying resource list).

Ways to make it happen

Here, briefly, are some of the kinds of things experts propose:

-- Make sure that job-site recycling is specified in your contract with the contractor. The contractor can then do the same in his contracts with subs.

-- Opt for design that uses standard sizes, such as 8-foot lengths, to reduce cutoffs of drywall and lumber.

-- Estimate and purchase carefully so you don't buy more than you need.

-- Store materials carefully. Cover bags of mortar with plastic, stack bricks, keep lumber covered and off the ground.

-- Centralize wood-cutting operations to make it easier to find off-cuts for blocking and lintels. This reduces the need to cut full-length lumber and, according to a Toronto study, can reduce overall lumber use by 15 percent.

-- Measure carefully to avoid off-cuts. Use scraps as spacers or blocking, or save them for kindling. Alexander recommends stacking them according to size to make reuse easier. "Making A Mountain Out Of A Molehill I & II" (see resource list) describes technical ways to reuse scraps and avoid generating them.

-- Look for opportunities to reuse or salvage materials when remodeling. Windows that don't meet energy code can be used on a porch or mud room. Lighting fixtures can be rewired and reused. Wood flooring may be salvageable for another job. If you can't reuse material, and you can't sell it, consider donating it to a nonprofit such as Habitat for Humanity. Or put it out front with a "free" sign.

-- Consider buying good-quality secondhand items, such as doors and cabinets. Look in the classifieds for these.

-- Figure out which categories of waste your job is going to generate - i.e., lumber, drywall, cardboard, rubble and so on - and establish a recycling center at the job site.

-- Call your trash utility to get a list of local recyclers of construction and demolition waste. If the utility can't help you, look in the Yellow Pages under Recycling, Demolition or Junk. Call around to select recyclers willing to work with you.

Be sure to ask in what form they want your material - for example, separated or mixed, treated as well as untreated wood, etc. Is there a minimum amount they require? Do they have containers for on-site collection? What do they pay or charge for materials?

Expect to pay to drop off most materials, such as drywall and clean lumber, but the charges should be well below landfill fees. Recyclers will give you money for some materials, such as cardboard and ferrous metals.

-- Set up a recycling area with bins and floor space for the different recyclables. Label prominently. Go over the setup with everyone involved in the project. Talk about what your goals are and encourage people to go along with the program. As subcontractors come on the job, they will need to learn your recycling system.

-- Track your savings and let everyone know their extra effort is paying off. Then spend some of your savings on cinnamon rolls and coffee for your contractor and crew to thank them for the extra effort.

Susan McGrath's column runs every two weeks in the Home/Real Estate section. Send questions and comments to The Household Environmentalist, P.O. Box 70, Seattle, WA, 98111.

--------------------------------------------------- LIST OF RESOURCES INCLUDES TRADE SHOW, PUBLICATIONS ---------------------------------------------------

-- "Building With Value `93," a resource-efficient construction conference and trade show for builders, developers, remodelers, real estate agents, appraisers, code inspectors, suppliers and public agencies, will be held Friday 7 a.m.-9 p.m., and Saturday, 7 a.m.-6 p.m. at the Washington State Convention and Trade Center. The cost is $175-$235. Signup and details: Kathleen O'Brien, 842-8995.

-- "Construction, Demolition and Land-Clearing Waste Resource Guide," King County Solid Waste Utility. Call 296-4466 for a free copy.

-- "Guide to Recycling Construction and Demolition Waste," Seattle Solid Waste Utility. A free guide available in late November. Call Melina Thung, 684-4643, to get your name on the mailing list.

-- "Building With Value: A Resource Guide," Sustainable Building Collaborative. Call 503-234-6931 to be put on the mailing list. A free booklet and three fact sheets, also due out in late November.

-- For a packet of information on job site recycling, including an article by Jon Alexander, send $4.50 and a stamped ($.58) legal envelope to Northwest Eco-Building Guild, 217 Ninth Ave. N., Seattle, Wa 98109.

-- Construction Materials Recycling Guidebook, Metropolitan Council, Data Center, Mears Park Center Building, 230 East Fifth Street, St. Paul, MN 55101. This free guide is one of the best on how to recycle job-site waste. Includes worksheets for figuring the economics of recycling a specific job.

-- Greater Toronto Homebuilders Association has several very helpful publications, most notably "Making A Mountain Out Of A Molehill, I & II."

Each publication costs $20, including postage. To request an order form, write the Association at 20 Upjohn Road, North York, Ontario M3B2V9 Canada.

-- For a comprehensive look at commercial resource-efficient construction, order a copy of The Stafford Architects' "Designing With Vision; Public Guidelines for the 21st Century."

Send $15 to Scott Schreffler, The Stafford Architects, 2025 Eighth Ave., Seattle, WA 98121-2603. Much of the information is pertinent to home building, and the document is thoughtful, informative and well written.