Whether you’re a sparky or a chippy, a dunny diver or a bricky, a lot of the waste that’s generated by the work you do can be recycled.
In fact, over 90% of the waste generated on home construction sites can be recycled or diverted to other uses.
It’s a similar story for demolition sites, and for the waste that’s created during a building’s lifetime.
So before you bin anything, take a moment to find out if it can be recycled.
Here are a few things that can be recycled that you might not have thought about:
1. Lighting waste
A lot of modern lighting, including fluoro tubes, hi-bay lamps and compact fluorescent lamps contain mercury, which is a major environmental problem. The glass and aluminium in light globes can also be recycled. On top of that, metal lighting frames can also be recycled.
2. Electronic waste (e-waste)
Mobile phones, computers, printers, game consoles and old electric tools – all are easily recycled. Aside from massive amounts of plastic and dangerous things like lead, e-waste recycling also recovers a lot of gold.
3. Batteries
We hardly give them a second thought, but both dangerous and valuable materials can be recovered from old batteries of all types. All batteries of any size, from the smallest button cells up to the grid-scale batteries now making an appearance, are recyclable.
The good news is that getting into battery recycling couldn’t be easier. And if you are ferreting around the back of the tool shed and come across old nickel-cadmium (Ni-Cad) batteries, take particular care to make sure they are properly recycled. Cadmium is another environmental bad boy. Car batteries also require proper recycling due to the lead they contain.
4. Metals
Metals are among the most recyclable and most recycled of materials. You only get one crack at the beer in each can, but the cans keep coming back again and again. Aluminium, steel, brass, copper, lead and stainless steel are all in demand from scrap metal merchants.
5. Everything else
Timber, bricks, tiles, concrete, ag pipe, polystyrene foam, plastic films, toilets – the list of recyclable materials goes on and on. So before you chuck anything in the skip that’s headed for the dump, hit the keyboard, check with your council or businessrecycling.com.au, or look for local service providers, and see if there is a recycling solution for your waste nearby.
Start recycling today
If the waste you want to recycle happens to be lighting waste, e-waste, batteries or metals, your search is over.
Ecocycle offers tradies simple solutions for lighting and battery waste, starting with prepaid collection boxes and buckets for smaller quantities, extended up to, well, the sky’s the limit.
We can also organise pick up of commercial quantities of e-waste anywhere in Australia.
And for scrap metal recycling talk to our sister company, Recycal.
To find out more, gives us a call 1300 32 62 92 or fill in the contact form below.
