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ESMG Sample
Construction Waste Recovery Specification
Construction Waste Management Specification Strategies
The purpose of this guide is to provide building owners, architects and engineers
with model specification resources and information for implementing cost effective
waste reduction, reuse, and recycling activities during building construction and
demolition. Incorporating construction waste management specifications into your
project will contribute significantly to the preservation of the environment while
substantially reducing the disposal cost of waste generated on the job site.
Strategies for developing effective specifications for construction waste management should include:
1)Using bid alternatives to sending project waste to a landfill.
2)Include minimum waste diversion rates and listing specific items for targeted for
recycling.
3) Require a formal construction waste management plan that implements cost effective on-site recovery of materials.
4) Specify the use of an experienced construction waste manager to insure cost effective recovery, reuse, recycling and disposal of all project waste.
This guide has been prepared by Environmental Service Management Group, Inc.
(ESMG). We are an environmental consulting firm specializing in waste materials
management, recycling, diversion and disposal activities. We offer our unique perspective as practitioners in the field of waste materials management by providing
general comments for corresponding sections of the sample bid specification. A
list of additional resources are located at the end of the guide. For additional information or explanation please contact us by telephone toll free at 1-888-739ESMG(3764), or email [email protected].
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Sample Construction Waste Management Specification
SECTION 01505
PART 1 - GENERAL
1.01 WASTE MANAGEMENT GOALS FOR THE PROJECT
A.
The owner has established that the project shall minimize the creation of construction and
demolition waste on the job site. Factors that contribute to waste such as over-packing, ordering error,
poor planning, improper storage, breakage, mishandling, and contamination shall be minimized. Of
the inevitable waste that is generated, as many of the waste materials as economically feasible shall be
salvaged for reuse and recycling. Waste disposal in landfills shall be minimized.
B.
Diversion Requirements: A minimum 75% of total project waste by weight shall be diverted
from the landfill. The following waste categories, at a minimum, shall be diverted from the landfill.
Land clearing debris
Clean dimensional wood, pallet wood
Plywood, OSB, and particle board
Concrete
Bricks
Concrete Masonry Units (CMUs)
Asphaltic concrete
Steel
Cardboard, paper, packaging
Asphaltic roofing shingles
Metals
Gypsum drywall (unpainted)
Paint
Glass
Plastic
Carpet and pad
Beverage Containers
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1.02
RELATED SECTIONS
1.03
DEFINITIONS:
A.
Construction Waste: Building and site improvement materials and other solid waste resulting
from construction, remodeling, renovation, or repair operations. Construction waste includes packaging.
B.
Demolition Waste: Building and site improvement materials resulting from demolition or
selective demolition operations.
C.
Disposal: Removal off-site of demolition and construction waste and subsequent sale, recycling, reuse, or deposit in landfill or incinerator acceptable to authorities having Jurisdiction.
D.
Recycle: Recovery of demolition or construction waste for subsequent processing in preparation for reuse.
E.
Salvage: Recovery of demolition or
1.04
REFERENCES, RESOURCES
A.
27709
WasteSpec, Triangle J Council of Governments, P.O. Box 12276, Research Triangle Park, NC
B.
C.
1.05
California Integrated Waste Management Board,
916-255-2296, e-mail [email protected]
Greater Vancouver Regional District,
604-437-4873, web site: www.gvrd.bc.ca/services/garbage/index.html
REGULATORY REQUIREMENTS
A.
Conform to all applicable codes, regulations, and legislative enactments governing the collection, transportation, treatment and disposal of all regulated and non-regulated construction and
demolition waste materials generated during the Project.
B.
New Jersey’s Mandatory Source Separation Act requires all materials designated for salvage
and recycling must be separated at the job-site prior to removal by a licensed transporter to designated State approved facilities in good standing with the Jersey Department of Environmental Protection.
The requirement for the on-site separation of materials will only be waived if the contractor can
demonstrate to the Contracting Officers Representative(s) that there is insufficient room to
accommodate this process, and that an accepted alternative off-site separation facility will successfully
meet all waste management goals and project salvage, reuse, and recycling requirements.
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1.06
WASTE MATERIALS MANAGEMENT PLAN
A.
Prior to the start of demolition activity, waste removal, or application for payment approval,
the General Contractor shall submit for the approval of the Contracting Officers Representative(s) a
Waste Management Plan for approval. The Waste Management Plan should include the following:
11.07
1.
Designation of an on-site party (or parties) to implement the plan, including those
responsible for distributing the plan to all contractors, instructing workers, and
overseeing documentation of the results.
2.
Analysis of estimated job-site waste to be generated, including types and quantities
by weight and volume.
3.
Proposed Alternatives to Landfilling: a list of each material planned to be salvaged,
reused, or recycled during the course of the Project and the proposed destination of
each.
4.
Diagram of the site plan designating the collection equipment, containers, signs, and
storage area for materials to be salvaged, reused, recycled or landfilled.
PROGRESS REPORTS
A.
Submit Monthly, a Waste Management Progress Report. The report shall contain the following information:
1.
Project title, name of company completing report, and dates of period covered by
the report.
2.
Amount by weight (in tons) of material landfilled from the project, identity of
facility accepting material, and associated cost of transportation and disposal.
3.
For each material recycled or salvaged from the Project, provide the following:
a. Amount by weight (in tons)
b. Date(s) removed from the job site
c. Receiving party
d. Cost associated with bin rental, hauling, and facility fees
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4.
1.08
Include legible copies of on-site logs, manifests, weight tickets, and receipts.
Manifest shall be from the recycling and/or disposal site operators who can legally
accept the materials for the purpose of reuse, recycling, or disposal.
PROJECT MEETINGS
A.
Waste management plans and implementation activities shall be discussed at the following
meetings:
1.
Pre-bid meeting
2.
Pre-construction meeting
3.
Regular job-site meetings
1.09
ENFORCEMENT AND COORDINATION
A.
The General Contractor is responsible for providing appropriate containers and removal
services as required.
B.
Prime Contractors must coordinate and fully cooperate with General Contractor.
C.
Failure to provide an acceptable waste management plan prior to beginning work, and complete progress reports in a timely manner will result in withholding of payment, liquidated damages,
and/or termination.
PART 2 - SERVICES
2.01
PRE-QUALIFIED CONSTRUCTION WASTE RECYCLING MANAGER
A.
Provide the name and qualifications at the time of bidding of a waste recycling subcontractor,management service, or consultant to be used on this project. Provide references for similar waste
materials recovery, reuse, recycling and disposal work within the last three years.
1.
Environmental Service Management Group, Inc. (esmg), P.O. Box 1661, Wall, NJ,
07719 or approved equal shall qualify as an appropriate waste management coordinator.
PART 3 - EXECUTION
3.01
WASTE MANAGEMENT PLAN IMPLEMENTATION
A.
Coordinate waste materials handling and separation for all trades, and document results of
the Waste Management Plan. Provide the name and qualification of any sub-contractor to be used to
develop and administer the Waste Management Plan.
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B.
Provide oversight and instruction for the separation, handling, transportation, recycling, salvage, and landfilling for all construction and demolition waste materials.
C.
Designate specific area(s) for separation of material, salvage and recycling. Recycling and
waste container areas are to be kept neat, clean, and clearly marked in order to avoid contamination or
mixing of materials.
D.
Maintain an on-site log, which includes for each load of materials removed from the site: type
of material, load volume and/or weight, recycling/hauling service, date accepted by recycling service or
landfill, and facility fee.
E.
Do not handle, separate, store, salvage, or recycle hazardous materials. Contact Project Manager if hazardous materials are encountered.
END OF SECTION 01505
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Construction Waste Management Specification General Comments
Setting Diversion Requirements
Waste diversion rates of 50% and 75% by weight are used most often for projects following the U.S.
Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design LEED Rating System.
Projects that reach these benchmarks are awarded point credits denoted in the certification process of
green buildings constructed under more environmentally preferable methods. Projects seeking this
certification find that unlike many high performance buildings, where higher initial cost pays benefits
back over time, construction waste management practices yield immediate benefits through lower
construction waste disposal costs. In fact, our firm has proven that effective construction waste management programs can reduce costs by 40 to 70 percent on all projects, simply because recycling is
cheaper than disposal in landfills, or at least revenue neutral in most geographic regions.
Requiring alternatives to using landfills for project waste can have an even greater impact on a job
site, as it requires contractors to be more accountable for building practices which often results in a
higher quality constructed building. It places greater emphasis on planing from the outset, where
there is less ordering errors, better allocation of resources, more supervision of workers, increased
safety, and less opportunity to overlook mistakes that are often buried at the bottom of 30 yard mixed
waste dumpster.
The demolition industry has for many years, understood the cost benefits of waste diversion and recycling, and often achieve over 50% diversion rate without much difficulty. Projects with little or no
demolition, are able to meet diversion rates as high as 60 to 80 percent by implementing basic recycling practices, and do it for less cost than conventional landfill collection and disposal methods.
Building contractors with little recycling experience, may build in higher time and labor costs, due to
the common misconception that recycling means more handling and separation of waste. We recommend providing additional emphasis and resources at the pre-bid meetings to help contractors accurately estimate meeting waste diversion requirements. These concerns can be eliminated by employing
a waste management professional to guide contractors through the estimating process at the pre-bid
meetings, or require the use of a qualified waste manager to meet the materials diversion specification.
See additional information on related section.
Definitions
Including definitions of waste management terms is one of the most overlooked areas in writing construction waste specifications. While some may view this as overstating the obvious, omitting these
terms invite compliance problems for the less than enthusiastic recycler. Here we recommend including a few basic definitions of some of the most common terms used in the waste industry. Contractors
will have a greater understanding of project requirements and develop waste recovery strategies more
effectively. Tradesmen with limited exposure to recycling, will be more inclined to participate in group
discussions at regular job site meetings, and communicate waste management requirements to their
workers clearly. Referencing related environmental standards such as the LEED Rating System, state
or local regulations may supplement additional term definitions.
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References
The most common resource WasteSpec is a 114 page manual tailored to all sixteen divisions of the
Construction Specification Institute (CSI) format. This a useful resource in designing bid specifications and includes symbols that highlight areas that can raise or lower project cost. Much credit is
deserved to WasteSpec in creating the first comprehensive tool to assist architects and engineers in
designing appropriate language for requiring construction waste management practices. However, we
caution users that due to the age of the document, many of the bid strategies employed may not be
applicable in many geographic regions, as the waste and recycling industries have simply evolved differently than the authors anticipated.
Regulatory Requirements
Bid specifications should reference full compliance with all federal, state and local regulations governing waste collection, separation, transportation, disposal and recycling activities. Familiarity with relevant statutes, regulations, and ordinances is critical in the development of a successful construction
waste management strategy. Contractors must be mindful of the regulations effecting the collection
and transportation of materials, in particular those that self haul materials off-site. The bid specification includes relevant rules within the State of New Jersey and should be modified according to specific job-site location.
The section also references the mandatory source separation requirements that prohibits mixed waste
from being commingled (mixed) or collected in a single container or truck, and then separated at an
off site facility. This does not preclude the mixing of recyclable together to be separated at off-site
processing facilities. While some facilities are capable of sorting some mixed recyclable loads, the likelihood of contamination from non-recyclables, the presence of residual waste generated from processing, and the high cost is not usually a viable solution for meeting diversion requirements. Although
these facilities may represent their processes as being capable of recycling a high percentage of materials, they may only capture certain categories of material within each load. For example a load representing 50% gypsum, 35% plastic film, and 15% cardboard, may be entirely disposed of in a landfill as
85% of the materials may not be able to efficiently separate out the 15% of targeted cardboard recyclable. This is of particular importance where LEED Specifications are required, as the qualification to
document all materials may not be satisfied. Including some provisions to allow for this method of
recycling is advisable, in particular for urban renovation projects, where site space is significantly limited.
Waste Materials Management Plan
The importance of requiring a formal construction waste management plan prior to the start of work
can not be understated. Allowing work to begin prior to approving a formal plan will make achieving a
diversion rate of more than 50% extremely more difficult, as each mixed waste load containing recyclable allowed to leave the site makes it progressively harder to achieve the diversion goal. During
early stages of a project, most project materials are delivered packed, stuffed, wrapped, and encased in
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some type of recyclable, representing a good portion of the low hanging fruit from the recycling tree.
Moreover, trying to change the focus of subcontractors mid-stream is much more difficult than setting
the bar at the beginning of the job.
The critical elements of the plan must answer the who, what, where, when, and how of waste creation,
collection, removal, and documentation. Submittals that fail to address these issues simply a policy
statement, and should be viewed as unacceptable. We further recommend that the plan include some
estimation of waste generation by weight and volume. While this number may be an arbitrary number
or best guess of waste production, it is useful to identify these estimates early and review them in the
final stages of completion. The learning experience for the project and for the contractor will enable
them to be more accurate in future estimating opportunities, and help them to identify the actual cost
of wasteful building practices.
Progress Reports
Requiring progress reports coincides with requiring a formal waste management plan. This is a means
by which the owner and architect can identify if the project goals are being achieved. We recommend
that if you are going to require reports, they should be meaningful in that they should identify materials recycled by category and calculate the current diversion rate as accurately as possible.
Understand that vendor bills and receipts may be several weeks behind the actual removal of materials, as it sometimes takes haulers several weeks to bill for loads. If you are requiring a professional
waste manager to administer the program, these reports should not be a problem, as most are
equipped with software tracking that makes it easy to know where you stand throughout each stage of
the project.
If the project is seeking LEED Certification, they will be required to account for all material generated at the job site, therefore additional emphasis needs to be placed on the paper trail of receipts and
invoices from waste and recycling vendors. Lastly, try not to be too reactive when reviewing progress
reports for a particular period of time, as recycling rates do fluctuate throughout the project based on
the weighted average of some materials.
Enforcement and Coordination
Specifications are primarily a means of communicating with the building contractor. Owners, architects, and engineers should take the opportunity to communicate through the most effective means
possible that waste management provisions for the project are not status quo. It is useful to emphasize
that subcontractors are also expected to follow the waste management requirements, as noncompliance with the waste management plan is an area where most recovery efforts breakdown. The key is to
remove any ambiguity from the bid specification. Be clear on what is required, who is responsible, and
when consequences be enforced if the process is not followed. Where multiple prime contractors are
present on the job site, we recommend requiring one party, usually the general contractor, to be responsible for the waste management program. The consequence of requiring each prime to handle
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their own waste management plan will ultimately be more costly due to the duplication of recycling
and documentation efforts.
Qualified Construction Waste Managers
It should come as no surprise that we highly recommend requiring that the contractor use a qualified
construction waste manager to administer the waste management program. Requiring an experienced
materials manager will insure that waste diversion is achieved at a cost savings to the contractor and
the project.
Waste managers will be able to identify recyclable materials, markets, and vendors, coordinate subcontractor training, signs, and reports, with more skill and efficiency than contractors who attempt to
self administer waste activities. Fees for professional management services often represent a small
fraction of the savings generated by the landfill cost avoidance achieved by their industry expertise.
Here requiring the assistance of a professional waste manager will reduce the learning curve for many
types of contractors who might be inhibited from bidding of jobs where recycling is required. Their
ability to represent the cost savings and overcome the contractors perceived burden of additional
management requirements, will reduce bid costs in this area.
Short of requiring the use of a waste manager on the project, you may consider including these entities as references at the pre-bid meeting as a useful resource to help estimate the amount of different
types of waste that will be generated, the expense reduction potential, and the cost involved with recycling materials.
Qualifications in this section should include, independent waste managers with at least three years of
program management experience. While construction waste management may be a relatively new specialty for waste managers, materials brokers specializing in recycling in the commercial and retail sectors should qualify. The important factor is that the waste manager should be an independent entity,
and not possess a waste hauling license or be affiliated with a specific processing facility. These types
of consulting representatives may not provide the independent management oversight to insure the
diversity of recycling qualifications needed to insure construction waste management success.
Additional Resources
California Environmental Protection Agency. Designing with Vision: A Technical Manual for Material
Choices in Sustainable Construction. Sacramento: California Integrated Waste Management Board,
2000.
Kincaid, Judith E. J.D.; Cheryl Walker; and Greg Flynn. WasteSpec, Model Specifications for Construction Waste Reduction, Reuse, and Recycling. Research Triangle Park, NC: Triangle J Council of
Governments, 1995.
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King County Solid Waste Division. Seattle/King County Contractors Guide to Preventing Waste and
Recycling-2001. Seattle: King County Solid Waste Division, 2001.
The American Institute of Architects. Demkin, Joseph A., ed. Environmental Resource Guide. New
York: Wiley & Sons, 1996 (1997 and 1998 Supplements)
U.S. Green Building Council. LEED: Green Building Rating System. Version 2.1 Washington, DC: US
Green Building Council, 2002 (1015 18th. St., NW, Suite 805, Washington, DC 20036; 202-828-7422;
available in PDF a www.usgbc.org).
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