With Global Recycling Day arriving on March 18th, it feels fitting to cast a critical eye at the sheer volumes of materials frequently discarded on building sites and reassess our duty of care towards the planet.

From buckets of plaster and off cut timber to cans of leftover paint and tangled electrical cables, tons of valuable resources get written off per project as waste when alternative routes boost sustainability and even earn you cash!

The Benefits of Tradesman Recycling

Regenerating those mounds of unwanted construction debris makes perfect commercial and environmental sense. Just some of the perks include:

• Cost Savings – Waste transfer and handling fees quickly add up across jobs. Reusing or recycling slashes these while generating extra income.
• Reputation Building – Promoting green credentials earns trust as homeowners increasingly demand ethical practices.
• Legal Compliance – Stricter council regulations means tradesmen must prove responsible waste processing. Fines quickly offset recycling profit.
• Resource Preservation – Making new building supplies demands intensive mining, smelting, and transport energy consumption. Sustaining recyclables in use longer reduces this industrial burden
• Carbon Footprint Reduction – Landfill waste emits greenhouse gases whereas recycling reduces fresh production emissions.

Prioritising the Quick Wins

Some construction waste types get recycled more easily. Focus on these first when you are formalising site separation:

• Metals – Highly profitable and widely recycled. Capture this revenue source.
• Concrete – Local crushing plants readily accept rubble for reprocessing into aggregate. Just check rules on steel mesh bits.
• Wood – Timber merchants shred offcuts into landscaping mulch or biomass fuel. Nail studded bits may need sorting first.
• Drywall – Plasterboard gets recycled into new products or soil improvers. Check if painted sections are accepted.
• Cardboard and Paper – Recycling paper waste from offices or product packaging is a standardised process that most sites have established.

 

Get site separation smooth on inevitable stuff first, before expanding recycling processes to address trickier waste types over time as momentum builds.

Article source: Darragh Timlin, https://www.tradesmansaver.co.uk/