Most of us think of construction in terms of a finished product –– a new home or office building, an addition, something useful and of value. Yet, as any contractor knows, construction also creates debris and demolition materials that can seem anything but useful.

In fact, disposal of such materials can be costly. According to the spring 2004 Vermont Construction Site: Reuse and Recycling Directory, a National Association of Home Builders survey reported that a typical builder pays $511 per house for construction waste disposal.

Statistics from the Vermont Agency of Natural Resources show that in Vermont alone, construction and demolition projects generate approximately 25 percent of Vermont’s waste stream, resulting in 100,000 tons of construction and demolition waste that ends up in landfills each year.

New landfills can be difficult to site, and old ones are filling up and closing each year. Given these challenges, many in the construction industry have begun to consider alternative solutions to the disposal of construction and demolition debris such as recycling and reuse.

“Construction and demolition is a large portion of the waste stream and a heavy portion,” says John Fay, assistant director at the Greater Upper Valley Solid Waste District. “It would be wonderful to see more of it reused because there is a lot of recyclable and reusable material.”

“There are more benefits than just resource benefits to reuse,” says Carolyn Grodinsky, waste prevention coordinator for the Vermont Agency of Natural Resources. "Although the longer we can make our landfills last the better, there are also a whole lot of economics to salvaging materials and recycling. You have money saved, resources conserved and jobs created.”

Reuse Grows

When it comes to waste disposal, contractors frequently have been ruled by the bottom line. Bill Hochstin –– materials manager at Dartmouth College in Hanover, N.H., an institution sensitive to issues of waste disposal –– says, “Historically, given the cost of labor and the cost of getting the job done, contractors had very little regard for the waste that was coming out of a project. It all went into a dumpster and out of sight, out of mind.”

Hochstin feels the 1980s changed this position as the industry began to experience landfill closures and witness an increase in the expense of disposal. At this time, the industry began to segregate metal and recoup some of its costs. “We got pretty smart in the early 1990s when we started looking at construction a little bit differently and started trying to reduce costs on different phases of a project,” says Hochstin. “You look at the demolition phase, for example, and try to reduce your cost as much as possible by isolating what it is that you are taking down and asking is there any value in it?"

“A growing number of contractors in the industry have caught on to the cost reduction and resource benefits in reducing, recycling and reusing construction and demolition waste, yet there are still challenges.”

Dartmouth College, for example, works with a firm called ERCO in southern New Hampshire that takes masonry material and uses it for road-beds or landscaping. “Their tip fee is less than the cost of disposal,” says Hochstin.

Challenges and Incentives

A growing number of contractors in the industry have caught onto the cost reduction and resource benefits in reducing, recycling and reusing construction and demolition waste, yet there are still challenges. “The difficulty seems to be in trucking and in training at construction sites in terms of sorting,” says Fay. “I see a future where you send mixed construction waste to a facility that then sorts it. That would solve the training and trucking problems and still allow material to be recycled.”

Dartmouth College relies on such a local business where they can bring in mixed product from demolition and have it sorted, separated, and recycled entirely. “Although the tip fee of this company is higher than that of the landfill, in many cases the materials that are mixed in the box aren't acceptable at the landfill,” says Hochstin. “About 15 percent of items we get are from contractors. We are hoping to eventually get this up to much higher,” says Rhona Dallison of COVER, a White River Junction, Vermont-based organization featuring a home repair and reuse program.

To encourage contractors to reduce waste, Vermont’s Agency of Natural Resources is offering contractors grants of up to $5,000 per Vermont-based project. They also recently gave COVER some funding to hire a person to work specifically on contractor outreach. In order to qualify for a grant, a contracting firm has to develop a comprehensive plan on how it will manage waste during a project. “We basically have a set amount of money available and when it runs out, that’s it,” says Grodinsky.

In addition to helping cover expenses, the grant program also allows contractors to itemize how much it costs to salvage and recycle materials. They are able to see the breakdown of how much it costs for hauling or for container rental. “We’ve heard in the past that recycling costs money and when you lump it all together there are certain things that are going to cost money, but you need to compare it to the cost of disposal,” says Grodinsky.

Organizations That Help

“One of the things that we’re really trying to push with our recycling and construction waste reduction program is that contractors need to plan in advance. What we found was if they tried to deal with recycling waste once the project was under way, there was just too much going on. Planning in advance before the project starts and educating people along the way is how contracts are likely to save the most money and have the most success,”
says Grodinsky.

“Statistics from the Vermont Agency of Natural Resources show that in Vermont alone, construction and demolition projects generate approximately 25 percent of Vermont's waste stream.”

As part its planning process, contractors should research their disposal options. Organizations such as COVER and the Burlington, Vermont-based Recycle North are willing to take in and frequently pick up building materials and construction debris. Recycle North, for example, has a building material reuse department offering “kinder, gentler demolition.”

Recycle North employs six full-time deconstructionists who go to a site and take down barns, houses, garages, sheds and additions. They also work with contractors to disassemble specific parts of a building. Reusable material is processed and brought back to the store located on Pine Street. Anything that is recyclable goes into a recycling container. The rest of it, which typically accounts for approximately 40 percent, ends up in the landfill.

COVER has even been known to step in and help relocate a house scheduled for demolition. Trumbull-Nelson helped donate some of the equipment used in the relocation. “We ended up moving it because it was going to be torn down to make way for a senior center, and we put it back together to house a large family that was having trouble keeping themselves housed,” says Nancy Bloomfield of COVER. Although most projects are not this dramatic, organizations such as COVER and Recycle North are typically willing to accept most reusable materials. “Contractors give us doors and windows that are coming out of remodeling jobs, kitchen cabinets, boxes of tiles that are left over, lumber, bathtubs, toilets, shower stalls, pretty much anything. In addition to providing materials for our home repair program we also sell these items to the public. The proceeds from the sales fund the reuse program and also provide 30 percent of the funding for the home repair program,” says Dallison. “Contractors save on their dump cost and get a tax write off
since we’re a nonprofit organization. They are also doing a good thing for the community and the environment that they can use to market to some of their clients.”

In an effort to get the most value out of reusable materials, Recycle North runs a value added program that takes items that are having difficulty finding a new home and transform them into other products. For example, they may take single-pane sashes, remove the glass and replace with
a mirror or make shelving units from a hollow core door.

Waste Reducing Tips

In addition to advanced planning, contractors should also be sure to educate subcontractors and identify recycling and reuse bins as well as inform them of the products to be recycled and reused.

Recycled materials change throughout the course of a project. Although wood and steel may appear at first, corrugated cardboard typically shows up near the end. “If you’re expecting 100 beds, for example, you should be aware that they will be packed in corrugated cardboard,” says Hochstin.

He also suggests trying not to “over order” materials. “You want to be getting just what you need when you need it. The extra can become a real problem later.”

Managing debris can also be a problem, especially since most job sites today are very tight quarters. Putting in a box to collect debris requires a lot of space. “We find different ways to manage it,” Hochstin says. “You may put containers where you have the light switches or another where you're doing the wiring. It may seem like a lot of containers, but at the need of the day you can quickly get them into the proper streams and you’ve not taken all the valuable job space.”

Many contractors assign one laborer to manage the trash and make sure things are in the right areas, realizing that it will help save them money in the long run.

The Vermont Construction Site Reuse and Recycling Directory suggests that recycling even one material may divert the majority of waste. It is also advantageous to allow time for salvaging materials on the front end while continuing to look for opportunities as a project progresses. The directory notes that carpet removal may reveal hardwood flooring that is salvageable.

“Following the mantra of reduce, reuse and recycle will bring savings,” says Hochstin.