Recycling Challenges

Recycling Challenges

What do you do with all your construction materials? If you have a contractor, they put up a dumpster and you don’t worry about it. Many contractors will reuse and resell the products. (especially now) But what a waste to see brand new products going to landfills! UGG.

So what do you do when you have small remodel projects, don’t have a truck and don’t want to spend $55.00 to make a trip to the dump? It is so easy to put small amounts in the trash. The answer of course is to try to reuse, re-think or repurpose as much as you can.

For instance Here is a Gecko Cut out from baseboad

Things such as bricks, copper parts, countertops, faucets, tile, are very easy to get rid of via places like habitat, freecycle and craigslist. But how much re-purposing can you do with old baseboards, drywall, leftover wood? It’s not just landfill space at a premium and dealing with guilt over putting anything into the landfill, It’s where do you store everything so you can re-think, re-purpose, re-use? Cities such as Encinitas will most probably mandate the recycling of construction debris. Will you get fined? How bad is it to put in 1/2 a trashcan of old wood? All these thoughts - Not to get off on a tangent!

In the case of recycling ignorance is sometimes bliss. I have separate piles of batteries, lightbulbs, eyeglasses, paint, painted wood, baseboard and old electronic parts, cables to go to recycling centers somewhere.

The first thing is to check what your local recycler will take. As an example: King County (WA), and MA have great information on their websites. In California go to California Intergrated Waste Board for the recycler database

You can also go to the EPA for information about your region.

Try Earth 911 and find any recycling center

Here are the materials that can be recycled from construction debris. Always check with you local Waste Management Company as they may take more than this.