Why recycling is a win-win for your company

Written By yellowsack.com
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The increasing rate of urbanization brings demand for new homes and buildings and elevated demand for raw materials. According to a scientific report by the MDPI "Construction activities consume more raw materials by weight than any other industrial sector, nearly 32% of the world's resources, including 12% of water and up to 40% of energy. And approximately 40% of all raw materials extracted from the earth and 25% virgin wood are used for construction."

Adopting better processes

The construction and demolition industry also accounts for a large proportion of waste disposal; the environmental protection agency estimated:

  • In 2015 that the United States produced nearly 550 million tons of construction and demolition debris.

  • By 2018, that number had increased to a massive 600 million tons.

Concrete was the most significant proportion of waste at 67.5%, followed by asphalt concrete at 17.8%. C&D wood products made up 6.8 percent, with other products accounting for 7.9%. When looking at the whole C&D product group, with exception of concrete, a massively 77% ends up on landfill.

As the industry becomes more mindful of the environmental impact of its activities, there is an opportunity to adopt better processes and techniques to create a circular economy. By considering how we dispose of our waste materials and how we reuse them, they will remain inside the chain for longer, reducing further contribution to landfills.

Why not landfill?

Though it may seem an easy and inexpensive option to dispose of your waste in a landfill, there are many adverse effects:

  1. Decomposing material in landfill becomes landfill gas which is a combination of 50/50 CO2 and methane. Methane is up to 36 times more potent than CO2 and 15% of all methane emission in the entire U.S. comes from landfill. That's a major contributor to global warming and that should be reason alone to recycle.

  2. Dangerous toxic substances escape from the broken down material in dumped waste; this contaminates the earth, the groundwater, and the food chain damaging the natural environment, the habitats of wildlife, and, most alarmingly, it can end up in our food!

  3. By dumping directly to landfills, these materials will be missing their potential for reuse, many materials can be recycled and repurposed. So, there are many reasons why recycling is the most favorable option.

“Builders’ knowledge and experience, too, are vital in the enhancement of sustainable objectives. By utilizing their expertise, they play an integral part in increased product usage from recycled materials.”

Many industries are working to produce sustainable materials across the construction sector. Covestro is a world-leading supplier of high-tech polymer materials. They recently held a talk with leading architects and industry professionals, finding that "the transformation of materials is one of the most promising routes for decreasing the carbon footprint in construction and retrofitting."

Builders' knowledge and experience, too, are vital in the enhancement of sustainable objectives. By utilizing their expertise, they play an integral part in increased product usage from recycled materials. So that's where your business comes in; if the early plans for your project entail complete demolition of a site before a rebuild, you may also want to consider deconstruction for reuse and recycling. By using Yellowsack's easy-to-use flexible dumpster bags, you'll be ensuring that, with any dirt, gravel, or other C&D materials that we collect through our disposal service, you'll be giving those materials new potential and saving them from landfill.

Where does your waste go?

Once you have helped us to source separate your waste into our Yellowsack dumpster bags, we'll deliver your debris to companies like Zanker Recycling. Zanker operates four nationally recognized recycling facilities and is a leader in construction and demolition debris diversion and composting. Through your continued custom with Yellowsack, your waste reaches plants like Zanker, who divert more than 80% of the waste they receive from landfilling. Two plants recycle mixed debris, and their Florin Perkins facility processes construction and demolition debris to help local communities reach landfill diversion goals. Additionally, their composting facility recovers 85% of all yard and organic waste, processing them to produce organic compost marketed to farmers in Salinas Valley and Monterey for use on their crops.

Image courtesy Zanker Recycling.

Image courtesy Zanker Recycling.

Even materials like carpet can be repurposed as part of Zanker's California Carpet Stewardship Program. Zanker told us that "by recycling carpet material with them, you'll reduce the use of millions of barrels of oil used in the reproduction of new carpeting." And they can also repurpose it for new carpet, padding, auto parts, plastic, lumber, erosion control products, roof shingles, construction products, and fuel pellets.

“By recycling carpet material with them, you’ll reduce the use of millions of barrels of oil used in the reproduction of new carpeting.”
— Zanker

So, which materials can be recycled?

  • Metal recyclers often take aluminum or copper wiring scrap, other wiring fixtures, conduit, iron, copper, brass, steel, lead piping, and appliances, such as refrigerators, freezers, washers, and stoves.

  • Concrete can be used as a base for new asphalt paving, bed foundation material for trenches, aggregate for mixing new concrete, to control streambank erosion, landscaping mulch, fill for wire gabions, and material for building new oceanic reef habitats.

  • Uncontaminated scrap lumber or pallets can be recycled into furniture or chipped and used for landscape mulch, compost, animal bedding, boiler fuel, or engineered building products. Sometimes pallets can be returned to the vendors.

  • Gypsum scraps can be recycled in some locations into additives for concrete, plaster, and stucco, and various agricultural products, such as soil amendment or as animal bedding.

  • Glass can be recycled into fiberglass or used in place of sand in paving material.

  • Asphalt shingles can be used in asphalt highway and road paving and pothole repair. See more here!

  • Thermal insulation (fiberglass, cellulose, rigid foam, foam-in-place)

  • Floor tiles (heavy-duty/commercial use)

  • Carpet and carpet cushion

There are many benefits to your build when you recycle and reuse existing materials. You can maximize your efficiency and reduce construction costs. Recent challenges presented through supply chain blockages only highlight how companies can speed project timings by using what they already have.

What materials can be reused on-site?

Some C&D materials and applications include:

  • Easy-to-remove items like doors, hardware, appliances, and fixtures. These can be salvaged for donation or use during the rebuild or on other jobs.

  • Wood cutoffs can be used for cripples, lintels, and blocking to eliminate the need to cut full-length lumber. Scrap wood can be chipped on-site and used as mulch or groundcover.

  • De-papered and crushed gypsum can be used, in moderate quantities, as a soil amendment.

  • Brick, concrete, and masonry can be recycled on-site as fill, subbase material, or driveway bedding.

  • Excess insulation from exterior walls can be used in interior walls as noise deadening material.

  • Paint can be remixed and used in garage or storage areas or as a primer coat on other jobs.

  • Packaging materials can be returned to suppliers for reuse.

How else can you prevent waste and reuse?

According to the Environmental protection agency, these are some ways you can prevent pollution and reduce waste on site:

  1. Ask drywall suppliers to back-haul scrap drywall for use in new drywall production.

  2. Keep drywall cutoffs easily accessible to use for small spaces.

  3. Replace toxic solvents, adhesives, and coatings with less hazardous products, such as water-based or low volatile organic compound (VOC) paint, adhesives, joint compounds, and sealants.

  4. Reclaim solvents on-site for reuse, or contract with a recycling company.

  5. To minimize spills while painting, clean spray guns by immersing only the front end in a solvent. Clean spray guns by passing a solvent through the gun and into a container, rather than spraying cleaning solvent into the air.

  6. Prepare smaller test batches of solvents and coatings.

  7. Cover solvent, adhesive, and coating containers to prevent product evaporation.

  8. Use solvent-based coatings with high levels of solids to reduce air emissions.

  9. Arrange painting schedules to reduce wastes from cleaning equipment between tasks, shifts, or color changes.

“Your business will also help create a faster, more efficient circular economy by recycling your waste materials. At the same time, your construction project will be promoting sustainability, a cause that is becoming increasingly important to your customers.”

What are the benefits of recycling?

When you use Yellowsack's dumpster bags, you'll be safe in the knowledge that everything that you source-separate and recycle stimulates the economy because recovering materials requires more employees than it does to dispose of them at a landfill. And anything you decide to donate from your project will be helping your local community and the nonprofit organizations who work with them.

By recycling and reusing materials you will you be saving time and resources on your construction or demolition project, and your waste will promote jobs in the recycling industry, protect the earth's natural resources and reduce the energy used to produce virgin materials. The Construction, Demolition and Recycling Association calculated in 2014 that C&D recycling (considering factors like combustion emissions, transportation, and extraction) saved energy equivalent to 117 million barrels of oil and 10.25 million passenger vehicles driven for one year. That's a lot of energy! Your business will also help create a faster, more efficient circular economy by recycling your waste materials. At the same time, your construction project will be promoting sustainability, a cause that is becoming increasingly important to your customers.

And finally, anything you source separate into your Yellowsack dumpster bags contributes to a company that firmly believes in turning C&D materials into more sustainable resources with a recycling rate that stands at 81% and aims at 100%. With your help, we'll reach that soon. And you'll be safe in the knowledge that you have just contributed to the employment of three very happy teams in Orange County, Los Angeles, and SanFrancisco. We'd say that's a win-win, and we can't thank you enough for that.

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