Whitehorse man salvages construction waste to use for his own home
It was a tip from a student, and it may help Whitehorse teacher Colin Abbott save a lot of money when he builds his house next year.
Abbott has been planning to build his new home, and his student had told him about the Beringia Interpretive Centre in the city getting a new roof. Abbott was soon at the facility asking for permission to collect the scrapped material.
"[The construction company was] … excited to see it not go to the landfill, and I now have … enough to do the external installation for a whole house," Abbott said.
Abbott said he's been looking for ways to reduce the cost of building that also align with his personal values.
The several dumpsters' worth of foam insulation he collected, according to his estimate, from the Beringia Interpretive Centre would have ended up in the landfill otherwise. Instead, it will now be re-purposed in Abbott's future home.
Abbott is planning to build his home next summer. He estimates that it took a week of work to collect, load, unload, and store the insulation material. He estimates the material's worth to be around $30,000.
It's not entirely free, though — Abbott says it takes time and work to collect the materials, and it's not always perfect for what he needs. For example, some of the insulation will need to be cut to be usable in his home.
The Beringia Interpretive Centre is getting a new roof this year. That's meant replacing some insulation, and Abbott plans to make use of the old material. (Asad Chishti/CBC)
Abbott said the construction crew was excited to see the foam insulation not go to the landfill. He now has enough to do the external installation for an entire house. (Asad Chishti/CBC )
"I [would] much rather put my work into that, and save a bit out of the landfill," he said. "Environmentally it's a win."
Abbott says such a move benefits everyone. He saves money, and a few dumpsters of waste is kept from the landfill. Even the construction company, Abbott says, saves on tipping fees as well as time and labour involved in transporting materials to the landfill.
Cory Sands, owner of Sands Construction which has been doing some of the work at Beringia, says more waste is generated in renovation projects than new builds. Sands says Abbott's reusing of the materials is great.
"[Foam structures are] really not going to decay or deteriorate," he said.
"It's usually tough to find a use for that … but it's great that someone was able to make use of it."
Usually, Sands said, material is being removed because it is either damaged or at the end of its life expectancy or both. Sometimes it takes more time — and therefore money — to try and reuse.
"It does come down to the timelines," Sands said. "If we pull it off [the construction site] today, it needs to go somewhere."
Faith Green-Mykituk, acting manager for waste services with the City of Whitehorse, says Abbott's initiative is fantastic. She says a lot of material that ends up in the landfill bins has uses outside of waste.
The city recently concluded its latest waste audit. A report on it will be publicly available in the coming months.
Faith Green-Mykituk, acting manager for waste services with the City of Whitehorse, with Mayor Laura Cabott. Green-Mykituk says Abbott's initiative to reuse waste material is fantastic. (Submitted by Faith Green-Mykituk)
Green-Mykituk, Sands and Abbott all agree that there is a case to be made for making it easier for waste, especially construction and demolition waste, to be diverted away from the landfill.
Abbott says one of the challenges is the degree of specialization in the construction industry, with different companies dealing with demolition, or roof construction, or waste handling — and nobody looking at the bigger picture of how to divert construction waste from the landfill. He suggests that the city could have a waste specialist who focuses on that.
"Changing … the policies and … rules of construction around how things can and should be salvaged is potentially very helpful."
According to a 2023 report from the United Nations Environment Programme, the design, production and use of building materials need to be considered when discussing emissions and climate goals. Reducing and re-using materials are among the main recommendations included in the report.
