Construction Waste as a Litmus
20 06 2007Waste and inefficiency is by far the biggest contributor to climate change and pollution. If we still exploited cheap energy in the form of fosil fuels and still utilized man made amterials such as plastics for the last 50 years but used them efficiently and without waste and world would be in much much better shape.
The next time you go by a construction site, if you can (without putting yourself in harms way) look inside the dumpsters on site. Besides the waste from packaging you’ll vast amounts of still usable building materials simply thrown out because it is more cost effective to get rid of them than store them for future use on other jobs. I have taken 100′ coils of rope, pallets of polyicoanurate roof insulation, glazing units for windows ordered the wrong size, tools and more from job site dumpsters all over in my career in construction/design.
More after the fold.
In fact the glazing units I mentioned (triple glazed units with two layers of low-e and krypton filled, VERY efficient and expensive units) are going to incorporated into my new house. My father owns 14 acres of woods in a unserviced area (no power, phones, mail or plowing) and put in a little cabin on it made almost entirely of salvaged and scrap materials. The wood was reclaimed from various construction sites and projects, the roof shingles were all free partial/damaged bundles right from the building supply store, the siding was taken from a house that was getting new siding applied and was going to be landfilled, the windows and doors were taken from curbsides and other construction site as were the kitchenette cabinets he put in it. When all was said and done he had a nice camp cabin about 24×30 for about $3 a sqft and his own labour.
The waste and inefficiency of the construction industry is mirrored in all our modern industries, from offices and stores with 24hour lighting, to disposable products and massive amounts of food waste and so much more. If we as a society made a conscious and financial committment to eliminating waste we’d be more than half way through the battle to live within the planets means. All the alternative energy technology in the world won’t help us unless we change our wasteful habits. There is no way to eat our cake and have it too. We either live within the planets means with less or we don’t.
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I’m grateful for this waste, though it’s sad to see from a societal standpoint. I can’t begin to count the amount of great things i’ve pulled from dumpsters, put a little effort into, and made good as new. Once i have a place to build a house I have a feeling many of it’s fixtures and materials will come from one man’s trash to be my treasure.