Waste Not

Recycling waste in available markets is great, but builders can also reuse waste right on the jobsite. “We found out about the Packer and believed we could do better [than what we were doing],” Suppes says. “We grind up bricks and blocks and use it around our foundations and retaining walls and for base rock under our sidewalks,” Suppes explains. “Wood products are ground to ½-inch sizes and used as mulch and for erosion control on the landscape. Gypsum is ground to a powder and used as a soil amendment.” The company uses its leftover asphalt shingles as road base or it sells them back to manufacturers, who add the materials into the production of new shingles.

This recycling and reuse strategy is a great environmental story, but there is a business story here as well. Clarum only started this recycle and reuse strategy at the end of 2005, so the system is in its nascent stage. Suppes says, however, that the company sees great potential. Waste disposal cost (and savings) per house depends on what jurisdiction the company is working in and what the local disposal costs are. For example, the city of Menlo Park requires builders to pay a $1,000-per-house deposit for waste disposal, but because Clarum Homes recycles and reuses its waste, the company is exempt from the fee.

Suppes says that in some cases it costs an extra 20 cents per square foot to reuse and recycle waste rather than send it to a landfill because the cost might include recycling, the extra man power to sweep up, and any non-recyclable material disposal that must be sent to a landfill. However, the extra 20 cents is usually off-set because the waste replaces materials that the company would have had to purchase anyway, such as mulch and filler material. It also depends on the tipping fee in the local jurisdiction. “If the tipping fee is high, we save money per house,” Suppes says. “In some urban areas, for example, the dump fees are very high.”

Clarum's strategy also has yielded an unexpected surprise: a new income stream. When there is a lull in its own grinding work, Clarum performs grinding work for other local builders, including Habitat for Humanity. Things are going so well that the company may be looking at purchasing another Packer, Suppes says.

Ken Patterson, president of Packer Industries, says he has builder clients all over the country and most, if not all, of these builders reusing their waste stream generally save money on two fronts. “They save money using mulch as a filter berm [in lieu of a silt fence] and as erosion control,” he says. “But builders have to put in a construction entrance as well. Instead of using gravel, they would use mulch. Everything added up can save builders $1,000 per house.” So now builders who would normally be paying up to $1,200 and more per house for waste hauling are paying $200 per house. “Which would you rather pay?” Patterson asks.

For builders who do not own a Packer (or a similar machine available from Concept Products Corp. in Paoli, Pa.), there are companies that will come to your jobsites and perform the services for a fee.

MATERIAL MATTERS - SOURCE: EPA WASTE OFFICE

The next step toward reducing the waste that leaves your jobsite is to reduce the waste you generate in the first place by implementing efficient construction practices, since not all construction waste can be used on the site. Items such as cardboard packaging, for example, must be sent to a recycling center, and oriented strand board with a radiant barrier must be sent to a landfill. Although regulations vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction for reusing jobsite waste, Patterson knows of only one state that has restrictions on adding any waste to the soil—North Carolina—so he feels that builders most everywhere should be doing this.

Yost agrees. Builders who are not thinking about reusing and recycling their waste are not thinking about the big picture, he says. “[Builders] ought to know their waste stream. It's a reflection of the quality of their operations,” he believes. “Plus, when that waste leaves that site, [builders] still own it and it is still their problem. It is long-term liability.” Yost continues, “For those people who say it is not cost effective to reuse, I am convinced that it is.”

“It's a mistake to not reuse the waste,” Suppes adds. “Landfill fees in most markets will continue to go up, material costs will continue to go up, and fuel will continue to go up.”

Clarum Homes launched a program that has significantly reduced the amount of waste it sends to local landfills and now grinds and reuses much of its debris on the building site. Here's how you can do it too:

• KNOW WHAT'S IN YOUR DUMPSTERS. It seems like a simple thing, but Peter Yost says knowing what items you or your subs are throwing away can tell you a lot about the efficiency of your construction practices and the quality of your buildings. More waste signals a problem.
• REUSE AS MUCH MATERIAL ON SITE AS POSSIBLE.Finding a way to reuse leftover bricks, lumber, and gypsum reduces how much waste you will need to haul to a landfill and significantly reduce the hauling fees you have to pay.
• RECYCLE EVERYTHING ELSE THAT CANNOT BE REUSED. Not all waste materials can be reused on site—it depends on the local codes—but many materials can be recycled in some way. The EPA says markets and recycling facilities exist for a whole host of materials including asphalt, plastic-composite decking, cardboard, and engineered lumber.

  - Nigle F. Maynard