Cut Costs and Environmental Pollution by Understanding Waste Management During Demolitions

Waste materials resulting from demolitions must be well managed, or else they have detrimental effects in terms of costs and the environment. You should begin by calling in a professional to assess the building that you want to demolish (a process referred to as waste designation). This will help you determine if the building contains or is itself a waste building where some sections require specialised handling of the demolition process. This pertains to building components such as lead mercury biocides and asbestos components used in construction years ago. If you are planning to carry out a demolition, here is a discussion that will help you manage and handle waste well:

Materials You Can Salvage

Not everything in the building that you want to demolish has lost its value. There are some materials, fixtures and fittings that you can refurbish or use in the same state they are in. Before demolition commences, look out for things that can still be of use on another structure and salvage them. This includes doors, windows, cabinets, plumbing fixtures like taps, electrical fittings like sockets and architectural millwork. In the end, salvaging such things that you can install on other structures goes a long way in reducing the amount of waste that you have to deal with.

Materials You Can Use for Landscaping Materials and Fuel

Converting some of the demolition waste into mulch for landscaping is another way of managing waste effectively. Particularly, wood that hasn't been treated or coated with toxic chemicals such as lead paints and arsenic-based preservatives is ideal for mulch. You can shred it on site with grinders and mechanical crushers, reducing the net cost you'd have otherwise incurred to get rid of it with hired waste management services. Besides landscaping, you can also compost such wood for gardening purposes or chip it for wood fuel used by residential boilers.

Materials You Can Use for Aggregate

You can recycle masonry and concrete materials in the form of aggregate. Here, mobile equipment such as rolling compactors can be brought to the site to break down the concrete and masonry material into rubble. The rubble can be used as surface for driveways and pedestrian paths within the site. Alternatively, you can haul the waste to a recycler who will help you to convert it into useful construction material that you can reuse to put up a new concrete structure.

With the above ideas on how you can handle waste when carrying out a demolition, you minimise the possibility of dumping it into the environment to form landfill and eyesores. Some of them also help you mitigate the cost of buying materials like clean fill for landscaping. For more information, contact a business such as Multiple Trades & Maintenance.