Green Renovations – What I learn at the dump.

When I bring demolition materials to the local recycling centre, I like to see what is coming in. It reminds me of my childhood when my father would take me on an outing to the township dump. The dump was the place to take your garbage as we had no collection service. It was a place pick up “treasures” and to see the wild life. With a hand full of stones I enjoyed trying to “stir up” the lunching rats.

Today it is pleasing to see renovators sort out materials in scrap metal, drywall, wood, paper products plastics and general waste at local recycling centres. But it is usually the small guys at the sites. At so many large jobs, the monster bin sits out front, filled with everything. It’s easy to throw it all in the bin. There is no infrastructure to sort at job sites and move to end sources. Have you ever asked where the monster bins go? In the Toronto area, most likely they go to a transfer station and then to Michigan landfill. When I do a tear out, I sort by layers in the truck or trailer so that the materials can be recycled.

In Peel Region the recycling centres wood goes to power generation and park mulch. The drywall gets reworked back into wall board. Metal goes to back into the metal industry. Paper and plastics are recycled into other products.
Let’s put in a little sweat, a lot of recycling, but hold the rats