Houston, we have a problem. I wish this was fake news, but it’s not.
I am gobsmacked by the amount of good wood we are hauling to landfill sites... and burying.
Today’s focus is on new-home construction.
Allow me to preface my non-covert dumpster-diving investigation by confirming that yes, there is wood waste recycling going on here in Manitoba.
However, for the most part, after speaking with those who haul away the stuff chucked in these multi-trade bins out front of new homes, the mixed-up stuff with all the good wood therein does not get saved or recycled. It just gets squashed and buried.
My Scottish heart finds this hard to take.
With permission from builders, haulers, etc., I shop in those bins. It is completely nuts that all those two-by-four through two-by-10 chunks and pieces, some shorter, some six feet and longer, along with plywood, particle board, finishing trim, any and all materials used in the construction of new homes, get tossed in a bin and hauled away, never to be seen again. Unacceptable!
I mean, we are almost in crying shame country here.
No one I spoke to from either the construction or waste removal industries is happy with the status quo. They would like to see as much of the leftover material recycled or repurposed as possible, but who’s going to do it?
A representative of one of the hauling companies says occasionally, wood-industry businesses will have a few bins put in place, allowing cast-off materials to be properly sorted for delivery to specific companies that then create a new and usable product from it. Like wood pellets for heating, for example. Excellent.
And by the way, I kept expecting one of these corporate haulers to respond at least once with "bin there, dumped that." But hey, just didn’t happen. Perplexing, to say the least.
Moving on. One of the removal chaps did say that what needs to happen at the landfill site (commercial area) is to have an area where these bins are dumped and sorted — the usable stuff separated out, the garbage sent on for disposal.
I’d love to see a Recycler’s Row created at all landfill sites, some of the drop-off depots run by volunteers for charity organizations, others paid labour for commercial recycling efforts, the bottom line being that as little actual garbage gets buried or destroyed as possible.
I volunteer to accept a very comfortable salary to design and manage a Recycler’s Row (RR) for the Brady Landfill Site. I can start today.
Residential contributors would leave a whack of recyclable, reusable stuff with the RR folk as well. Have you ever hauled a load of garbage into the residential dumping area and seen some of the stuff left there? Valuable furniture, materials... cool things. But the armed guards shoot you if you try to take any of it away.
Yeessss, kidding, no armed guards, but there sure is security watching like a hawk to stop you from stealing their good garbage. Those people can be stern. Don’t ask me how I know.
One person’s trash is another person’s treasure, and those of you reading this today who have a discerning eye for value, will be twitching with frustration at seeing any bin laden with these goodies being designated for dumping at Garbage Hill.
This situation calls for a hero! We must act! Wait! YOU must act, I’m way too busy rescuing and rehoming old pianos.
Organize, and hop to it! I’ll wrap with a warning to you people who dump your personal garbage in these construction bins. Stop. God is watching, His Son was a carpenter. HE asked me to tell you that if you keep it up, your final stairway might not lead to heaven. Just sayin’...
Comments or feedback, love to hear from you!
lmustard1948@gmail.com
