Once your building is demolished you will have a fresh new site to rebuild something beautiful and more fitting to your needs. But before any other plans start, the trash and debris from the demolition must be dealt with. Most commonly, dumpsters are on site to collect all debris and hauled off to a trash facility. This is by far the most cost efficient and quick way of dealing with your trash issue. If you are looking for other options, you may consider deconstructing or recycling.

• Deconstruction is taking apart your building piece by piece to salvage any usable material. Deconstruction involves removing everything from the doors and windows all the way down to the floorboards. Recovered materials can be donated to organizations such as Habitat for Humanity. There is a ReStore location right here in the hill country in New Braunfels. They will take any usable building materials, appliances, light fixtures, etc. Not only does this help support the building of Habitat homes, but also keeps your waste out of the landfill. This is an excellent option if your structure has functional items, but will likely double the cost of your project.
• Roll-off Dumpsters are widely used as a fast & cheap option. Third party companies will deliver a dumpster to your job site usually by the next business day. Once the container is full, they pick up the container and transport it to the disposal facility. Your contractor will be helpful when planning the most efficient dumpster placement & schedule. When planning to order a dumpster delivery it is important to make ample space available. A truck will need at least 20’ of height clearance to safely unload and load the dumpster. Not only do you need to be sure the dumpster location is clear of power lines and tree limbs, but it also needs to be on a level surface to ensure safety. Most items from a residential demolition can be added to the dumpsters but there are restrictions. You should clarify with the company or your contractor what is restricted.

Recycling your everyday trash is an excellent way to help offset your carbon footprint. Going beyond that and recycling the waste from construction & demolition is also valuable. Construction and demolition debris account for millions of pounds of trash in landfills. If you want your debris recycled the most streamlined option is single-stream recycling. This option can be pricey but it requires no separation during demolition. The materials are sorted at the disposal facility for you. A less expensive, but more time consuming option is to sort the materials yourself. Collecting the materials, dividing them into groups, and keeping them free of contaminants is a big job. Because this takes significant time and effort this will also increase your contractors bid.

• Reusing salvaged objects is ideal. I think everyone can agree that recycling is awesome but it also requires energy. Reuse is a method to save your waste from the landfill and also avoid the energy cost of recycling. You can reuse materials already on site like recovering lumber to use in your next project. Also, concrete can be ground and used to fill trenches or used as gravel. Even things like drywall is excellent as a soil amendment that has many benefits to the quality of soil.

When demolition is complete and the site is clear of debris you can finally move on to the next step of planning your new space! Make sure that the plans for the site are communicated to your contractor before the project is completed. It will save you delivery costs to have your demolition crew prep your site for what you have planned next.