The St. Louis Region and the Midwest are blessed with abundant open space. As a result, our landfill tipping fees, i.e. “the cost to dump”, are relatively low compared to other parts of the United States. Even though it might be easy for consumers, businesses and contractors to think nothing of throwing things “away and out of sight”, many of those items can be salvaged, recycled or reused and can bring significant cost savings and environmental benefits:
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Cost Reduction
Minimizing materials through appropriate planning, reuse and recycling reduces material expense, waste disposal and hauling costs as well as potentially harmful transportation related emissions.
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Public Relations
A company’s experience in waste prevention and recycling is essential in marketing their services to the growing number of potential clients. Make the public and potential clients aware of your commitment and successes through targeted media releases, workshops and other related educational campaigns.
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Certification
Your efforts to prevent waste, reuse salvaged materials, recycle and renew materials on a project can help the project earn points toward qualifying for green building certification programs such as: LEED™ (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design), a nationally recognized green building rating program created by the U.S. Green Building Council. LEED™ awards projects one, two or three points for achieving a 50 percent, 75 percent or 90 percent diversion rate respectively. A project can also earn one or two points for using salvaged, refurbished or reused materials for 5 percent or 10 percent of building materials respectively.
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Regional Waste Reduction
According to a recent Missouri Waste Stream Composition Study, C&D waste makes up 18% of the total waste stream in Missouri. Nationwide, C&D waste is about 130 million tons per year, or about 25% of all solid waste.* (Source: RECYCLING CONSTRUCTION AND DEMOLITION WASTES, The Institution Recycling Network) One day, there will not be an “away” for our waste disposal. Below is a summary of our region’s current landfills and their anticipated year of closing:
