Every year, Australia’s construction and demolition industry generates about 29 metric tonnes of waste, roughly 38% of the total waste produced in the country.
Typically, this waste comprises everything from concrete, asphalt, and wood to glass, bricks, and rocks.
All of these can significantly damage the environment, not least by polluting or blocking watercourses, groundwater or surface water, agricultural areas, soil, and air. They even have the potential to expose communities to hazardous heavy metals and chemicals.
As a result, construction industries need to find best practice methodologies to manage their construction waste and ensure it is disposed of responsibly.
Here are seven ways you can do just that.
1. Partner with Environmentally Friendly Disposal Services
Arguably, the best way to manage your construction waste is to partner with an organization such as 1300 Rubbish, which specializes in removing it responsibly in compliance with federal and state law.
These types of businesses do the clean-up work for you without any help from your crew. Typically, this is done after your construction has been completed, although you can arrange for it to be completed at various stages of your project.
When removing your construction waste, they will ensure that any chemicals, plastics, or other types of regulated materials are given to private or government-owned facilities that can dismantle, recycle, and otherwise responsibly dispose of them.
2. Properly segregate waste
During construction, it is very important to segregate waste properly. Not only will this help you or the eco-friendly rubbish removal service dispose of it responsibly, but it will also make the construction site tidier, safer, and a better working environment overall.
The best way to segregate your waste is to put it in separate piles for metal, plastic, glass, and wood, ideally at different parts of your construction site, to avoid mixing them up.
Doing this will make it easier and quicker to recycle or remove from your site, thereby improving efficiency.
3. Reuse what you can
Responsibly removing your construction waste is a good starting point. However, construction companies can further reduce the need to do so by reusing what they can.
A great way to do this is to repurpose materials, such as leftover concrete or excess soil, within their project. This will minimize the amount of waste that needs to be disposed of and reduce the need to purchase more materials.
For example, construction companies can recycle any spare concrete they have to use it as bases for roads or building structures. They can also use the soil they get from excavations for landscaping, melt metal to be used in different ways, and put wood through a chipper to transform it into mulch.
4. Tighter forecasting of order quantities
Another way to reduce the amount of construction waste you produce is to avoid overordering.
Sometimes, when companies order too much supplies, a surplus of materials results, which is often written off as waste.
However, thanks to AI-driven forecasting tools and project management software, it has become much easier to predict exactly how much materials will be required for each construction project you work on.
Where possible, try to order sustainable materials, such as bamboo, which have less of an impact on the environment. Compared to traditional timber, which can take many decades to grow, it can be harvested in up to five years, thus making it a dependable and renewable resource.
5. Employee Training, Buy-In and Awareness
To help them manage their construction waste needs more effectively, companies need to train their staff in best practices for doing so.
Doing this will provide them with the skills and knowledge to understand the need for responsible waste management and understanding what this entails. This should include recognizing how to properly segregate their waste, reuse materials, and follow eco-friendly and sustainable practices.
Ultimately, the more a company can develop a culture geared toward caring about how it disposes of its construction waste, the more effective it will be at doing so.
6. Waste Tracking and Reporting System
Recent advancements in technology have made it easier than ever for construction companies to manage the process of disposing of their construction refuse.
Today, contemporary waste management systems embrace RFID tags, GPS tracking, and a range of specialist software applications to monitor how they move and dispose of the materials they use.
This high-tech approach enables them to record accurate, real-time data on the amount and type of rubbish they generate and formulate strategies for reducing it.
More specifically, they can analyze trends in the types and levels of trash they produce, identify in what area they can lessen it, and enhance their recycling program.
Overall, a data-driven approach like this can be very beneficial, as it can help companies optimize their use of resources, comply with environmental regulations, and reduce the costs involved in disposing of their waste.
