Recycling Construction Waste

Did you know that 40% of the landfill waste generated annually in the US comes from construction projects? That is an astounding figure.

Yet what’s really astounding is that most of the waste that is typically hauled off a construction site can be recycled. Concrete, wood, steel, metal are all products that can be recycled and don’t have to go to the landfill.

Of course, deciding to recycle is a lot easier than actually recycling. LEED, the USGBC green building standard, provides up to two credits to projects that recycle 75% of construction waste. These aren’t small numbers, so to be successful projects must change the behavior of construction staff and require folks to separate waste on site. On dense, urban projects this becomes even harder because of the limited space available for separating waste.

Solera is working to achieve both LEED waste credits by recycling at least 75% waste. Mark Kane is Solera’s Assistant Superintendent working to hit the project’s recycling goals. “Currently Solera is achieving an 82% recycle rate. With twelve months to go on the project I realize achieving a 75% recycle rate is going to require a lot of work,” Mark explained on the Solera job site earlier this week.

Luckily Mark has some tools at his disposal:

• Trash buggies assigned to each subcontractor rather than community trash bins

• “Waste tickets” that fine subs that throw their waste or recyclable materials in the wrong place

Keep a look out on our blog for continued updates on Solera’s efforts to recycle our construction waste and help keep recyclable items from entering our landfills.