Have a goal for zero waste at your job site? Diverting waste from the landfill and practicing recycling can pay off by lowering energy, material and disposal costs. Here are 5 steps to overcome some common challenges that you may face as you implement a recycling program:
Find and Setup Adequate Space
Recycling and reuse efforts require space and space is at a premium at most sites. Work to set aside an area of the jobsite to store salvaged building materials and store recycling containers or rolloffs for either commingled or source-separated loads. If you cannot get enough space at the job site – see if you can set up a remote site for the materials.
Education and Communication are Important
Communicate your plan to the general contractor and subcontractors on site. They will need to know - who is going to receive the materials, how materials should be separated, and when the materials will be collected and delivered to the appropriate facilities. You cannot communicate the plan too often.
Provide Leadership
Designate an on-site leader with the appropriate authority and responsibility to be accountable for educating the general contractor’s crew and subcontractors, setting up the site, coordinating, reporting, and supervising recycling efforts to prevent the contamination of recycling loads. Include all waste-handling requirements and expectations in all project documents and job interviews. If needed, communicate the message in another language to insure your goals and expectations are understood by all involved in the project. (Hint: if you really want to be on the leading edge – plan ahead and post your materials on the RecycleMatch Marketplace to find a market for your items before your project begins)
Involve Subcontractors
Require all of your subcontractors to use recycling containers. You may want to require them to recycle their own waste off site and provide you with appropriate documentation. Ask each subcontractor to conduct a review of the recycling project goals and objectives each time they are speaking of safety issues. This is an easy way to link the two important topics and to minimize administrative cost.
Prevent Contamination
Adopt strategies to prevent contamination by clearly labeling the recycling containers/rolloffs and waste containers on site.
Post lists of recyclable and non-recyclable materials. Conduct regular site visits to verify that the rolloffs are not contaminated. Provide feedback to the general contractor’s crew and subcontractors on the results of their efforts.
We hope you will find these tips useful for your commercial building project. Reducing costs and helping the environment are goals all businesses can achieve.
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