The eco friendly way to deal with construction waste disposal
Wondering what to do with all the debris left over from your home renovations? Here's how to deal with it the green way.
Your renovation project is over (or halfway there) and now you need to get rid of the mess. Guest beds are hitting the curb to make way for an office or a studio, and those empty basements now include new drywall and floorboards. Televisions are being replaced, wall-mounted and flat instead of tubes or boxes.
As Baby Boomers begin to retire, some are leaving behind larger spaces. They may rent out existing rooms in their homes or move into new ones to scale back on spending. But even if you’re not retiring and are just looking for something new, remodeling a home is a great way to increase value or just add convenience. When you’re renovating, you inevitably wind up with debris. What’s the best way to ensure that everything is properly taken care of? What’s the stuff to worry about, and why?
Debris removal and recycling go hand in hand
Here are seven of the most common materials you may come across during your renovation or construction project, ranked from easiest to most challenging to recycle:
1. Concrete & Mixed Rubble
A good chunk of the waste generated annually for building-related construction and demolition is concrete and mixed rubble, and infrastructure is in place to keep it out of landfills. Depending on your local options for having it removed, it can be reused for anything from gravel to roadway material.
2. Wood
Recycled timbers can be used in future construction, although they’re more commonly recycled into scrap wood and chips. These can be used for particleboard as well, so keeping them with the rest of the wood makes it easier to keep track of everything.
3. Drywall
Not every landfill will take drywall or any gypsum materials, which is good, because when it decomposes it bleeds 25% of its weight in hydrogen sulfide (a.k.a. natural gas). It can be recycled into new drywall and similar gypsum products instead. Moving it aside right away means smaller elements of the gypsum are less likely to contaminate your other waste.
4. Asphalt Roofing
Very little asphalt actually goes to landfills, since it’s so recyclable. It winds up in everything from pothole repairs to brand new blacktop or simply more shingles. It’s also the easiest to stack when sorting, saving much-needed room during your renovation.
5. Metals
Depending on the substance, metals are generally easy to recycle in bulk. This means keeping them all together is fine for starters.
6. Bricks
Surprisingly far down the list is bricks, split roughly equally with metals and plastics for a three-way tie at the bottom. Alongside their obvious potential to be used in your own future renovations or décor, they might find a welcome home with someone else with similar ideas. Either way, sort the broken ones out first.
7. Plastics
The biggest challenge to recycling plastics is the sorting of different plastic types, so despite this being only one category, it’s a bit sneaky. Use online resources to check types of plastic if you’re not sure about something. Keep an ‘unsure pile’ if the internet lets you down – you can always check later.
Homes will always be disrupted during work like this, so why not use the extra space to sort your renovation debris? If you haven’t yet considered how you’ll dispose of the piles you’ve accumulated, sorting will simplify what goes where and save time later.
Frequently asked questions
We price based on how much space your items take up in the back of our truck, broken down into ⅛, ¼, ½, ¾ of a truckload, all the way up to a full truckload. Our trucks hold the equivalent of seven pickup trucks.
Our prices vary based on location and there is a minimum charge for our teams to remove your items, which is different in each location, based on a number of factors, including local disposal and recycling fees.
We offer single item pricing for certain items such as mattresses or TVs, sometimes this will be less than our minimum charge.
For materials that have a heavy cubic weight like dirt, concrete, and gravel, pricing is based on the total volume that the material takes up in the truck, up to a maximum of one foot in height for a full truck.
Watch us load up a truck to see how our standard pricing works!
If you need service weekly, monthly, or quarterly, we offer bulk pricing discounts. This gives you better value compared to common alternatives, such as dumpsters or less professional junk removal services.
Interested? Call our business account team at 1-888-475-3461 to discuss your needs as well as pricing options.
On the day of your appointment with us, our friendly, uniformed truck team members will give you a call or text 25-30 mins before we arrive to let you know we’re on our way.
Whether your business has a single location or multiple locations, we can create a custom junk removal solution that works for you. We can coordinate pickups at multiple locations at a local, regional, and national level. Rather than work with dozens of regional or local companies, let 1-800-GOT-JUNK? handle the jobs across all your locations.
Absolutely! We take large items all the time. As long as it can be lifted and loaded into the truck by two people, we'll be happy to take it away for you!
We work with all types of businesses and can handle any type of job - cleanouts, bulk item removal, general junk removal and even specific items like cardboard or pallets. We can take pretty much anything as long as it's not toxic or hazardous. We can remove your items from wherever they’re located, whether it’s your office, store, site or anywhere else—all you have to do is point!
Yes, we're fully licensed, bonded and insured! We have insurance covering damages to both persons and property for every single booking.
While we don't quite service the entire map, we cover almost every greater metropolitan area across the US, Canada, and Australia. To see if we’re in your neighborhood, you can start a booking by entering your zip code here.
Our customer service center is open 24/7, so we’re here whenever you need us! While operating hours may vary in our franchise locations, we offer same-day and off-hours service, including weekends.
