6 Smart Tips to Reduce Waste on Your Construction Site
Whenever a building is constructed, renovated or demolished, humongous debris and construction waste are accumulated on that site. Can you think of how much it could be? Around 548 million tons of construction waste is generated on an average civil engineering structure site. This waste includes concrete, asphalt, glass, wood, metal, bricks, etc.
Here we are offering 6 tips to minimize construction waste. These tips will help prevent the reusable material from getting lost in landfills.
1. Avoid Errors on the Site
If you don’t work with an experienced team, they might commit errors on the site. The incorrect measurement of material, wrong cutting or using faulty pipes are some common mistakes spotted on a construction site. Correcting these will generate more waste. So make sure to work with a trained set of professionals with an eye for detail.
2. Keep Track of the Stock
Your inventory planning should be on point to avoid any construction waste. Your ordering and stocking need to be of actually required material. Avoid overstocking. If your people process and cut the right amount of material for the construction, less material will be wasted. You should perform regular audits to check that the optimum amount of material is getting used.
3. Innovative Construction Waste Management
Your workers must be trained to sort reusable material from waste. You can use commercial garbage disposal equipment such as a construction trash chute. It enables construction waste disposal with less effort and time for you. A trash chute is a tube through which you dispose of garbage from any floor. These tubes will take all the trash to a centralized location.
It is best to place a construction trash chute at every level of the building to provide easy access. You can also use a waste compactor at your site to reduce the volume of waste.
4. Plan What Can Be Recycled & Reused
On a construction site, there is a lot of stuff that can be recycled and reused. Enormous drywall scrape can be reused for filler pieces. The backfill along the foundation walls can be made with clean concrete chunks, rubble, bricks, etc. Scraped non-colored wood can be used for mulch. You can also donate some material if it can be used by someone else. Keep a separate bin for reusable materials.
5. Try Green Building
If you haven’t heard of a green building, it’s time to embrace the concept. It is a type of construction where more reusable and sustainable materials are used instead of perishable material. The method of construction is also environmental friendly. If you can’t go for a full-fledged green building, you can use sustainable substitutes wherever possible.
6. Order Building Material in Minimal Packaging
A lot of packaging on construction materials can be irrelevant. Identify the areas from which you can minimize the packaging. Extra packaging material is a loss from all sides. You are charged extra for packaging, and the material will turn into the garbage on your site so you will need to arrange garbage disposal equipment to remove it. And it’s dangerous for the environment.
In Conclusion
You can use cost-effective and convenient garbage disposal equipment like construction trash chutes and a waste compactor on your site. Apart from this, reduce as much waste as you can! By doing that, you will save on the extra cost of clearing debris. Simultaneously you will contribute towards sustainability as well.
Construction Waste & Recycling Resources:
- EPA Fact Sheet on sustainable materials management (pdf)
- Compactor Management Company
- Construction and Demolition Recycling Association
- US Green Building Council
- Construction safety signs at ComplianceSigns.com
About the Author:
Erich Lawson is passionate about saving the environment through effective recycling techniques and modern innovations. He works with Compactor Management Company and writes on a variety of topics related to recycling, including tips and advice on how balers, compactors and shredders can be used to reduce industrial waste. He loves helping businesses understand how to lower their monthly garbage bills and increase revenue from recycling.