Ontario Construction News staff writer
A Cobourg homebuilder is pledging to reduce construction waste on their building sites by 50 percent over the next two years.
Stalwood Homes president Al Rose says they are taking simple steps to improve recycling.
“We intend to immediately embark on a multifaceted program to introduce practices that reduce waste through intensified recycling systems and to minimize the future carbon footprint of our homes through state-of-the-art building systems and planning,” he says.
The goal is for Stalwood to be an industry leader in sustainability. The commitment to recycling will start in the office and continue on job sites.
“It continues big time here … where we build,” said Aidan Rose, vice president. “We’re planning extensive changes to the way we manage waste on site … how we buy, how we use and how we dispose of supplies.
Instead of “simply tossing everything in a dumpster and shipping it to landfills,” Rose said they will be “responsibly sorting, saving and directing excess material waste to places they can be reused, or disposed of responsibly.”
“The old way just isn’t good enough.”
Stalwood’s plan is to work with municipal partners, suppliers and trades to “find solutions to make this happen,” said Anthony Dew, General Manager.
Reducing construction waste is also a goal for the Canadian government and Environment Minister Jonathan Wilkinson recently announced awards of $1 million to each of three companies to develop technologies to reduce plastic waste from construction and food packaging.
GreenMantra Technologies in Brantford will use the funding to transform polystyrene insulation waste into new insulation; and prefabricated construction technologies supplier MgO Systems, of Calgary, which will use PVC construction waste to make new insulating materials.