Wood Flooring

Reclaimed wood flooring from Mrs. Grovewood's grandparents' house

Construction Waste

 Pile of debris from construction - awaiting removal to <sigh> a landfill

 

Waste management has been difficult on our project, both because of a fairly tight site (we don't have  a lot of space that isn't being built on or needed to access other parts of the property for construction) and because of standard operating procedure in the residential construction industry.

 

We initially targeted points for credit MR 3.2 Construction Waste Reduction hoping we could recycle or otherwise divert wood, cardboard, and other construction waste, however our investigation of the local options (MR 3.1 Construction Waste Management Planning) revealed that the smallest recycling dumpster available for residential projects is 20' long. This doesn't sound like much, but on a 1/5 acre site with trees and where a one-story house is being built, there are many places a container that large will fit. In addition, for construction of a single family home, it takes a while to fill that thing up. So here's my plea to local waste management companies: offer smaller recycling containers for residential construction!

 

So the alternative to diverting waste is attempting to minimize it. The point thresholds under MR 3.2 Option A are pretty stringent, and even with proper planning and take offs, most subcontractors (in our area, anyway) are used to approaching their trade a certain way - often one that both presumes and results in a lot of rework and repair and therefore generates waste. We are on track to get no points for the MR 3.2 credit and have been for awhile now.