Participating in the pilot project for sorting materials on site sponsored by the APCHQ and managed by Stratzer in 2023 opened our eyes in many aspects. Although some of our activities were illustrated in the Québec Habitation article, ESPÉ transmits through this article all the actions undertaken. This article is aimed not only at our clients, but also at our fellow entrepreneurs. The goal here is to promote good practices in debris management for all players in the construction industry. If you still have doubts about the benefits of reducing our construction waste, do not hesitate to consult the Écohabitation website!
Sorting materials at ESPÉ
13 March 2024 5 min
How to manage sorting materials ?
First of all, by respecting customer data confidentiality parameters, the digital project management system used by ESPÉ allowed Stratzer to easily and efficiently access project photos and timelines to help us with this project. Even though we are talking about a third party, this system greatly facilitates communication.
Another element to prioritize is to obtain exact and precise information on the destination of waste or sorted materials. In healthy debris management, it is ideal to check with your business partners where the waste and materials sorted at source (wood, gypsum, cardboard, metal, etc.) go. Despite all the good intentions, it is quite difficult to have proof of this. There are generally 2 main types of destination: landfill site or ecocenter/sorting center. The ecocenter is the destination of choice given that the materials collected there are intended for recovery purposes. The City of Montreal or your borough website offers all the information you need to know everything you need to know about ecocenters.
If you cannot confirm that your waste is indeed sorted and sent to an ecocenter, you can use the curbside collection services offered by the City. This method is more restrictive on site, because you will have to use your customers’ bins and/or accompanied by a precise method dictated by the City (i.e. stack your boxes ou tie them together). Therefore, this method is beneficial for smaller amounts of debris to handle.
Let’s reduce construction waste at source !
For ESPÉ, deconstruction was the ideal solution to reduce waste at the source. To do this, we organized an open day, but there are different approaches that can be used to avoid destroying everything. During demolition, you can offer the choice of recycling, reselling or reusing the debris. People who aren’t normally involved in your renovation projects may turn out to be interested in your materials for recycling. Don’t hesitate to use the Facebook marketplace to post furniture for resale.
If you are not able to restore interesting existing architectural elements yourself as part of your renovation project, there are circular economy organizations specializing in the recovery of CRD or architectural and heritage components such as RÉCO (ex Éco-Réno). They can take some materials to give back, but there are few who do the picking.
Let’s make our construction sites responsible
Why not integrate waste management practices with your employees in your own offices (or at home)? With all the tools available to us, there is no longer any reason to avoid composting, recycling, depositing products and returning hazardous materials (i.e. batteries) to sorting centers or collection points provided for this purpose.
Finally, the first step towards the construction site is the education of everyone. Displaying, training and raising awareness among all workers on your construction sites are the few actions to continually repeat if we want to make a difference. There are simple, bright digital format displays that we can provide to help you.
Ultimately, with all reservations, our recommendations would be as follows:
1. Get an integrated application or software to manage your operations if you haven’t already!
2. Choose container or debris management business partners who provide you with a receipt from the ecocenter for all trips made or a certificate of the materials recycling rate. Otherwise, transport the materials to the collection points yourself if necessary!
3. Find out about the City’s CRD materials collection schedule and integrate it into your schedule to benefit from recurring, organized pickups at no cost.
4. Before starting work, have a discussion with your customers and their expectations regarding items they would like to resell or recycle. Do what it takes to meet their needs, even if it means offering a moving service!
5. Build a network of circular economy organizations that suits your needs.
6. Don’t wait any longer before organizing your waste management at the office.
7. Use displays to visually explain what you want to accomplish on your job sites.
