Recycling Demolition Debris
Does anyone have experience recycling demo debris (sheetrock, wood and metal studs, old electric wiring, plumbing pipes, etc.)? If so, how did you set it up — separate materials and take it to different recyclers? Or send it to one recycler who did the sorting there? Or was there a recycler who would pick up…
Does anyone have experience recycling demo debris (sheetrock, wood and metal studs, old electric wiring, plumbing pipes, etc.)? If so, how did you set it up — separate materials and take it to different recyclers? Or send it to one recycler who did the sorting there? Or was there a recycler who would pick up all the debris at the demo site?
Any recommendations for recyclers?
Wow! thanks for some very useful information, especially from zil and imcq. I will pursue this for sure, and when I eventually get around to demo, I’ll pass on anything I’ve learned.
BTW, in reference to my previous post, I don’t think they pick up, so if you are renting a dumpster that will take it to them you are ok, otherwise you need to get everything to them, hence my problems with the van.
Contrary to all the naysayers, I did find a place in Montgomery NY – near Poughkipsee (sorry, I think I spelt that wrong!) that reycles gypsum. I called them and it actually turns out that they will take most construction waste and sort it for recycling, so you can send them wallboard, wood, metal etc. They charge $80 for the first ton and I can’t remember how much after. This is their website:
http://www.taylorrecycling.com/company/?id=2
When I talked to them they were very helpful. My problem has been in finding somebody with a van that is willing to load up all the stuff from my basement and take it to them. Unfortunately I have been very good at filling bags, but now they are full I can’t move them! If anyone has any good ideas about how to transport this stuff that would be greatly appreciated.
On the bright side, assuming I can get everything to them I have now renovated 2 floors of my house without putting out more than 6 contractor bags worth of rubbish.
Good luck, Silvermax, it is great that you are trying to keep all this out of the landfill!
Actually gypsum wall board can be recycled into more sheetrock- it’s commonly done in Europe and Japan. It’s not simply dust – it’s gypsum (a major product of NYS – if you were paying attention in grammar school)and it isn’t affected by being used in construction.
One way it can happen here is if the use recycled cosntruction materials is given some type of economic incentive. New stuff is cheaper because the manufacturer doesn’t have to assume the responsibility for its disposal.
Except for some scrap metal or marvelous Ye Olde Timbers, it’s landfill, baby. Just try finding a taker for your crappy yanked-out plaster and lathe, moldy sheetrock, lead-paint-encrusted woodwork, or even ancient windows. (You can only make so many cold frames.)
Having filled countless landfills’ worth of dumpsters with the toxic, useless crap of our various demolitions, I always relish the irony of the zest for “teardowns” during the recent real-estate bubble. I often wondered how many of these folks who tore down a perfectly serviceable old home to build a stucco monstosity then proceeded to furnish it with a few tchotchkes “recycled” from quaint materials (look, a cute totebag made from old Pepsi bottles!), all in the name of “saving the earth.” I comfort myself that there are wretched towns that actually welcome landfills as a revenue stream…and I must get one of those ‘green’ candleholders made from recycled candy wrappers any day now…
I would check out http://www.ecobrooklyn.com. They recycle a lot. They have done renovation projects and have reused most of the materials.
How would anyone recycle sheet rock? That just sounds crazy. It’s just dust between paper and won’t be in a usable piece when it is removed. Does someone need the dust for something?
Not all metal is recyclable, but a lot of it is.
I’m with you Silvermax, the tonage of trash I’ve put into a landfill from renovating my house makes my skin crawl. We’ve taken care in our demo to salvage what we can, even if it’s for temporary reuse during construction. We’re planning a number of decorative elements that incorporate materials we’ve salvaged from the demo.
Most of it is just garbage, unfortunately.
I believe that you can bring this suff to waste management
in red hook…give them a shout.