The Top 4 Challenges Associated with Managing Your Construction Waste

describe the imageFor anyone who’s in construction, or has ever done any remodeling or landscaping for that matter, you already know just how quickly the waste materials can start to pile up, especially during demolition projects.

No matter the type of construction, or size of the project–even if you’re extremely diligent about using economical methods–you’re sure to generate a substantial amount of waste.

The biggest problem isn’t the waste itself, but instead it’s what we do with all the construction waste that’s the real issue at hand. A large percentage of construction waste—from old lumber and scrap wood to concrete, metal, and even screws and nails—can be recycled, otherwise reused in some way, or at the very least, can be cleanly incinerated. Despite this fact, many people simply throw all of their construction waste in one big dumpster and send it off to the landfill where it takes up a huge amount of space in comparison to other waste.

Although most construction waste can be reused or recycled, there are still a number of major challenges that go along with managing the process.

Minimizing Your Waste

The first challenge in managing your construction waste is to obviously try to minimize the amount of waste you produce, as this will save you the time and money associated with the rest of the management and disposal process.

Waste Sorting

Construction waste can be made up of a huge variety of materials which are usually lumped together in one trash can and hauled away. To avoid bringing recyclable materials to landfills, you’ll need to go through everything and sort your waste into the different types of materials it consists of, i.e. concrete, metal, wood, etc. If you don’t want to sort or take the time yourself, you could always hire a private waste management company to take care of the sorting and recycling for you.


Not only can most construction waste be recycled or reused, some items, such as copper, aluminum and other metals can be sold, so you definitely want to pay attention to the sorting process.

Waste Collection and Hauling

Whether you’re taking care of the waste yourself or hiring a company to do it, it will all still need to be collected and hauled to the proper locations, which may or may not be anywhere near each other. In addition, some companies charge quite high fees to dispose of construction waste, making it all the more important that you take whatever steps you can to limit the amount generated.

Recycling, Reusing, Selling

While most of your construction waste doesn’t need to end up in a landfill, the reason it does is often because many people are simply unaware of how or where to recycle. There are beneficial ways to reuse construction materials, but finding out where to move the materials to can be hard to find. A waste management company focused on recycling and reuse can help you find those locations.

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