Call me weird, but I have way too much fun organizing my deconstruction materials into re-use, salvage and recycle piles. The waste avoidance and reduction process (see also 07/09/2009 and 07/12/2009 posts) is also known as Construction Waste Management (CWM) in the green building industry.
Chicago has an ordinance that requires the diversion of 50% of construction waste from the landfill. This ordinance applies to residential project with four or more units. The Chicago Green Homes program encourages a construction waste recycling plan that diverts 75% of construction waste from the landfill, exceeding the ordinance by 25%.
So – maybe my obsession and enthusiasm with re-use, salvaging and recycling is not so weird after all. But then, strange things happened.
I diligently separated all the drywall and plaster which cannot be reused or recycled and packed it into our 16 cubic yard dumpster. The dumpster was full to the rim. I called our waste hauler (WasteBox) and they sent a truck out for pickup. Problem was, the truck was unable to pick up the dumpster – it was way too heavy. They had to send for a bigger truck.
I promptly received a phone call from Jodi (at WasteBox) asking me politely to make the next load less heavy. Kevin, the owner of WasteBox, also followed up with me. He suggested mixing in some lighter materials (such as wood). But I was confused. What happened to the idea of CWM? What about separating to maximize all recycling opportunities?
Kevin explained that all dumpsters are going to a recycling facility for processing anyway. “That is where all recyclables are pulled out.” Is that for real? I have been working on out-of-state green building projects where the general contractor separated construction and demolition waste onsite, by having a dumpster each for cardboard, wood, metal, plastics, etc. Even a quick Google search leads to examples of onsite material separation.
Not so in Chicagoland, confirmed my friend Ted Krasnesky at Pepper Construction. It is typical to comingle construction and demolition debris and have it sorted at a recycling facility.
Fine, if this is how we do things here in Chicago, so be it. But it still doesn’t make much sense to me. It would be so much more efficient to separate materials at the source (the construction site) rather than at a recycling facility, and would eliminate all the double handling (and hopefully reduce cost).
I still like to keep my materials separated. But what I really like to know is how materials get sorted and recycled by the waste hauler or in the recycling yard.
They probably don’t have you separate it out at the construction site because most people would not comply. In most of Delaware, we have to pay for people to come pick up our recycling. The recycling rate in my neighborhood is about 10%.