Remember that saying, “reduce, reuse, recycle”? It’s more than just a chant that can get stuck in your head. Construction and demolition (C&D) can create an alarming amount of waste, and recycling as much of this material as possible is one small, but an impactful step in doing your part for the environment. Although it can take more effort on a construction company’s part to recycle instead of simply tossing materials into the nearest landfill, there are lots of bonuses to recycling these materials that can benefit your business*.
Minimize your carbon footprint.
By and large, using recycled materials requires less total energy than using brand new materials. By adopting the recycling process into your standard operating procedures, you can pitch in toward less total use of net energy, which results in the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions (GHG).
Reduce landfill waste.
Each truckload of materials that are recycled is exactly one truckload of materials that don’t get dumped into a landfill. As landfills fill up with construction debris specifically, they produce hydrogen sulfide, which carries a high health risk for people in the proximity. The less C&D materials ending up in a landfill means less gas that is produced by these materials and also requires less land that would be needed for a landfill.
Create new jobs.
Recycling is a process that requires a combination of manual labor and automated manufacturing. Human beings are needed to sort and organized recyclable materials to ensure they end up in the right places so that they can be repurposed. The more debris you send to be recycled, the more people are needed to move these materials through each stage.
Save you and your clients money.
Many construction materials can actually be reused instead of thrown away. When you’re doing a remodel, try to see if you can repurpose some of that drywall you’re tearing down. If you look for ways to integrate gently used materials back into a project, you’re going to save both you and your client's dollars on the back end. Plus, fewer materials that have to be disposed of, the lower your transportation costs.
Gain a competitive edge.
The many ways companies and businesses can work toward using green construction and creating green buildings have made being environmentally conscious an expectation when clients are searching for a company to use for their next project. Recycling can set you on the right path to working toward a LEED certification, and these efforts can give you the edge over your competitor for being the most environmentally friendly choice as a construction partner.
For more information on how recycling C&D materials can benefit your next project, contact an expert at ACI today.