Thompson Rivers University
OP-24: Construction and Demolition Waste Diversion

Construction and demolition waste weight and volume recording is left to the discretion of the contractor and is not currently tracked at the university. Some construction and demolition waste can be sorted and sent to Habitat for Humanity’s ReStore, or reused at the university. Some companies who conducted restoration work on campus highlighted sorting their waste at the source. Some of the waste was donated to local community projects, some was hauled back to their shops, and what was recyclable was recycled. Hazardous materials were properly disposed of as per health and safetey rules on campus. One of the contractors employede by TRU to haul away construction and demolition waste is KRM Contracting. It has a retail recycle shop in which it sells/re-purposes usable demolition materials for use by others. These materials are not weighed. Materials collected by KRM Contracting from TRU include: 1. complete counter and locking security screen from Human Resources Department. 2. Washroom sinks (8), toilets (8), cabinets and fittings (2). 3. Electrical covers (approx 50) plug in and switch 4. Lights - Boardroom 15' Fluro and Approx. 12 Misc. Sizes 5. 12 Interior doors c/w frames (no hardware) 6. Lumber - Approx. 400 pcs mixed 2x4, 2x6 - 15-18' length and approx. 100 sheets 4x8 plywood (1/2" and 3/4") 7. Plywood offucts 3/8" (1/2 and 1/4 sheets) 4 pallet loads - 4'highx4'square 8. Cinder/besser blocks - 100 per pallet (20 pallets total) Clean fill soil is used in the layering process of filling-in local landfills. TRU had to remove the following amounts of clean fill from its campus work sites, and this was gratefully accepted for free at the local landfills to use with their ladfilling process: 16 double-axle dump truck loads, and 3 single-axle dump truck loads.

To calculate the weight data, a volume to weight conversion factor was used (see source below). The factor says that a 40 yard bin filled with 'mixed construction waste' weighs 50,000 lbs.. TRU construction waste data was obtained by two separate sources: Dianne Hinchliffe at YellowRidge Construction Ltd (Port Moody, BC), who provided the number of times 40-yard bins were tipped, and Lenie Johnson at KRM Contracting, (Kamloops, BC), who provided actual weights (1703.77 tonnes). Data from Dianne was based on receipts for the following months in 2013 (along with, in brackets, number of times in each month that bins were tipped): February(1), March (2), April (7), May (8), June (4), July (9), August (5), October (6), November (7) and December(5). All bins dealt with by YellowRidge were 40 yard bins. The total for the number of times the bins were taken to the landfill is 54 times. This number was then multiplied by the above mentioned value of 50,000 lbs., and finally converted to tonnes (2700 tonnes). To calculate the construction waste weight, a conversion factor calculation was used from the State of Kansas Department of Health and Environment (Bureau of Waste Management, Policy 10-02 related to Construction and Demolition Waste: Volume to Weight Conversion Factor, effective April 20, 2010, http://www.kdheks.gov/waste/policies/BWM_10-02_CD_Vol_to_Wt_Conv.pdf)