Construction Waste Disposal Best Practices

If you’re running a construction business, you probably ask yourself every time: Is there construction waste disposal near me?

Waste disposal on construction sites can pose a danger to our environment. This is why it is essential for construction companies to conduct effective construction waste management. It is legally required for construction businesses to follow strict waste management protocols for the disposal of construction waste materials, but it isn’t just for the environment; it can benefit your business as well. Building waste makes up a large percentage of the total waste generated in the UK; therefore, we will discuss the best practices for construction and demolition disposal in this article.

How is Construction Waste Disposed?

At Inspire Waste Management, we work by gathering your waste from construction sites. It then gets sorted out to determine whether any materials can be reused for future projects or recycled into something else, which means less will end up in landfills. Anything that can be recycled will be sent to a washing centre afterwards to be processed. Therefore, the earlier question of whether is there ‘construction waste disposal near me’ is officially answered!

What are Examples of Building Waste?

Suppose the materials are heavy and bulky and are generated from work projects on roads, buildings, or bridges (among other projects) that have been built. In that case, you can tell it belongs in construction and demolition disposal. Materials that are usually counted as building waste on a demolition site can include:

• Concrete
• Wood
• Asphalt
• Metals
• Bricks
• Glass
• Rocks
• Bituminous mixtures

What are the Benefits of Effective Construction Waste Disposal?

By participating in construction and demolition disposal best practices, you will find plenty of benefits, such as health and safety, compliance, social responsiility, reputation, awareness and cost savings.

Health and Safety

Handling building waste properly will help protect your employees and the public that may be nearby your construction site. With enacting the best practices for building waste disposal, it is far less likely that materials will be left in unsuitable places, and things such as trip hazards should not be an issue.

Compliance

Your business will not have to be concerned about any law action if you manage your waste effectively. By complying with the UK construction waste disposal regulations, you can concentrate on doing what your business does best. Inspire Waste Management can help you with this as we are always up to date with the latest regulation on waste management.

Social Responsibility

Managing your waste disposal on construction sites can limit the amount of waste you create in the first place. Therefore, you will be conserving the natural valuable resources we rely on, and the energy required to generate new materials will also be saved! So it will not just be your business benefiting, but the whole planet.

Reputation

Following on from the last benefit about construction site waste disposal, you can improve the reputation of your business by participating in efficient waste handling. You can improve relationships with your clients if they know you are doing good for the environment. This positive reputation that you have built up might provide more opportunities for future projects.

Awareness

Your employees can learn more about construction site waste disposal and how to handle inert waste efficiently. The sustainable practices they apply in the workplace may translate into better practices elsewhere, like in their personal life.

Cost Savings

The costs in your business should reduce when you are managing your waste correctly. Suppose you reduce the amount of waste you produce. In that case, this reduces the volume, and therefore the cost, of waste needed to be handled after a project is finished. Also, if you are reusing construction materials, you won’t have to spend that money on new materials.

How to Reduce Construction Waste

It isn’t just about construction and demolition disposal when thinking of waste handling practices, but also how you can reduce that waste in the first place. Practice the reduction, recycling, reusing, and salvaging existing waste, and you can help divert demolition materials from ending up in the landfill.

Waste generation, energy use, and material use can be lowered if you reduce construction materials and waste. Practices you can enact to start with for reusing materials include:

• Optimise the size of new buildings
• Prolong the life of new buildings with innovative designs
• Facilitate the reuse of materials
• Apply alternative framing techniques
• Preserve existing structures instead of constructing new ones
• Reduce excavation waste while working
• Purchase fewer materials to begin with (try not to overestimate while planning)

Benefits of Reducing Construction Waste

The benefits of reducing building waste are similar to the standard best practices of building waste disposal discussed above. Still, there are a few more to consider.

Employment Opportunities

There are more employment opportunities in other job sectors when your business applies selective construction projects. The recycling and reusing of waste materials mean that the recycling plants get more work; therefore, more employees are needed.

Environmental Impact

This is probably the most significant benefit and why waste handling is so important. The consumption of materials and extraction of new raw demolition supplies uses precious natural resources, so the reuse of materials can prevent this and maybe begin to offset the negative impact the construction industry has applied in the past. It also saves space in landfills, so there are fewer of the associated environmental issues that come with that. By reducing and recycling construction site materials, your waste management hierarchy will be much greener than other companies.

How Do You Recycle Construction Waste?

There are many debris on a construction site that can be recycled. An example is any leftover concrete or rubble, which can be recovered and recycled into aggregate and other concrete products. Leftover wood could be sold to recycling centred and then made into furniture by other sectors. Metals are also recyclable, so they can be recycled if the construction or demolition project includes these materials.

There are three standard construction waste disposal methods when it comes to commercial recycling of building waste:

Site Separated

This method involves having multiple waste containers available for the different types of waste on your construction site. Separating material waste while on site allows people easy access and simple identification to which container is which. This method also seemingly aids construction businesses to meet their recycling goals for projects. However, it must be noted that this method requires supervision and careful planning to ensure it is completed by employees correctly, and you will need more space for this approach for the containers.

Commingled Recycling

This approach to construction and demolition disposal only uses one container for the waste. This waste is sorted off-site, making it more straightforward for your employees to manage waste while working. Suppose your staff are hauling everything into one container. In that case, it makes their responsibility quick to get back to their primary focus. This practice requires very little storage, significantly reducing the amount of waste you create while completing a project.

Hybrid Recycling

This method combines both of the construction waste disposal methods described above. Hybrid recycling of building waste often incorporates the best practices of the two. There are usually fewer construction waste disposal containers, saving space on-site. These are often split into non-recyclable waste, concrete, and wood. This approach optimises the weight of each container and the effort it takes to sort out the rubbish. It reduces the amount of money spent on hauling fees yet doesn’t consume your employees’ time sorting through the building waste.

To decide between these methods of sorting building waste, you should assess which aspects are most important to you in waste handling on your construction sites. Alternatively, you could contact us to discuss what would be the better fit for your business.

How Can Inspire Waste Management Help With Your Construction Waste Disposal?

We have years of experience in building waste disposal with construction sites. We can offer other specialist removal services in construction and demolition disposal, such as disposing of hazardous waste (after chemical and physical analysis) as well as non hazardous waste or destroying scrap metallic waste, like wires. You will always receive a waste transfer note from us, so you have peace of mind that your waste produced was efficiently dealt with. These activities require essential standards set out by the government, but we are up to date with all regulations. We can help you understand more about waste handling to complete all protocols in place effectively, including a site waste management plan. We will also always follow recycling schemes where possible set out by the environment agency because we don’t want recyclable materials or usable materials to unnecessarily end up in a landfill. There is also the added bonus of our company having a competitive construction waste disposal cost!

Contact us today for more information or get the quote below.