Every construction job site produces waste, but it’s often an afterthought for managers. Instead of preparing an effective waste management plan, too many companies are content to rent a dumpster and call it a day. Unfortunately, poor planning often leads to a messy job site, safety concerns, and a bad public image.
According to the EPA, 2018 saw the creation of 600 million tons of construction and demolition waste. That’s more than twice the amount of municipal waste over the same time period. Without a proper plan to manage construction waste at your site, you’re wasting time and money.
Why Worry About Waste Management?
If you’ve got a poor waste management strategy (or worse, no strategy at all), you’re going to lose money through inefficient effort. You need to know how many dumpsters are required for your job site and have a schedule in place for them to be emptied and maintained. If you’re constantly sending out a dumpster to be emptied and waiting around for it to return, your schedule and your budget will suffer.
You’ve also got to worry about the environmental impact of the waste you create. With so many materials available for reuse, it’s irresponsible to send everything to a landfill. Many potential customers are more likely to be drawn to a construction company that promotes cleaner sites and a cleaner environment.
On that note, public opinion and scientific research have led to an increase in environmental legislation. It’s much easier to create a good waste management plan now than to have to scramble to meet the bare requirements of new laws and regulations. It’s also handy for bragging rights with your customers when you can tell them that the new environmental impact laws didn’t require you to change your company policies at all.
Ways to Reduce and Eliminate Waste
The easiest way to manage construction waste is to create less of it in the first place. The less waste you produce, the less time and effort it takes to manage it. But how are you supposed to reduce waste and keep your efficiency up?
A good first step is to reduce your building materials packaging waste as much as possible. The packaging alone generates an incredible amount of trash that needs to be cleared from your job site. It’s worth the effort to seek out materials suppliers that make reducing unnecessary packaging a priority.
Big job sites can also benefit from using a compactor to reduce the size of their waste and decrease the number of times the dumpster needs to be emptied. Compactors not only increase efficiency, they’re also a huge money saver. Compacted waste means fewer square yards of the overall waste that needs to be hauled off to a dump site.
Most importantly, you need to train your employees on the proper procedures for disposing of waste onsite. It won’t do much good for safety and cleanliness if the dumpsters are emptied but the site is still a mess. Proper orientation before the job and perhaps even an incentive program for keeping areas clean can go a long way towards effective waste management.
How Gainsborough Waste Can Help
Gainsborough Waste is here to make this process easier and more efficient for your schedule and your budget. It’s always a good idea to start with a free waste audit assessment to determine what equipment and maintenance schedule is right for your job.
We offer roll off dumpster rentals with capacities as large as 40 cubic yards. We’ve got the inventory to guarantee that no job is too big. And when you rent from Gainsborough Waste, we service and maintain the dumpsters on your schedule.
If your job calls for compactors, we’ve got you covered. We offer both stationary and self-contained compactors that will save you time and money on big construction jobs.
Finally, Gainsborough will haul your construction waste to our TCEQ-approved Type V dump site. Here, we’ll sort your concrete, wood, cardboard, and scrap metal for you. Clean wood gets transferred to a mulch facility for recycling, and the rest is taken to a Type IV landfill. Our efficient and repeatable process ensures that only about 25% of the material goes to the landfill.
Contact Us Before Your Next Job
If you’ve got a big project coming up in the Houston area, get in touch with us. We’ll help you come up with an effective and cost-efficient solution for your construction waste.
Call (713) 785-8050 to get the process started with one of our team members. You can also email us at [email protected] or fill out the Contact Us form on our website.
