Waste from Construction, Renovation and Demolition is a big deal. It makes up over a quarter of Alberta’s total waste.

Worst of all, much of this waste could be reused or recycled, but if it is not sorted and separated on site, then it just goes to landfill.

In 2023 the Biosphere Institute of the Bow Valley partnered with Bow Valley Regional Waste Commission, Bow Valley Builders and Developers Association and Cleansweep Waste Removal to develop new ways to separating waste on construction sites.

Cleansweep has been piloting the use of bulk material containers to collect waste from hard-to-reach construction sites or those with limited onsite space for large roll-off bins. Their initiative uses a portable crane to collect smaller loads on a regular basis, which are taken back to Cleansweeps base for manual sorting prior to bulk shipping to Francis Cooke Landfill. Their pilot has seen moderate success with potential for scaling up; however, contamination remains an issue, and Cleansweep employees are often tasked with sorting to maximise resource recovery. 

Three main barriers to source separation have been identified by Cleansweep employees:

1.      Apathy on the part of the contractors,

2.      Tight project timelines and busy contractors, 

3.      Poor or misunderstood site signage.

To overcome these barriers to source separation, our team designed and prototyped an improved waste container collection system based on a refinement of Cleansweeps pilot initiative on two active construction sites in the Bow Valley. 

Critical aspects of the new container design are;

1.      Better container durability and reusability,

2.      Improved ease of emptying and handling,

3.      Colour coding for specific materials, 

4.      Clear labelling, including images and multiple languages.

However, more than testing a new prototype is required to facilitate behaviour change, therefore this project will also include the following:

  • An onsite education component targeted at site supervisors and contractors. To best inform the content and format of the educational component and achieve maximum buy-in, we will co-create these learning tools with the intended audience. This participatory education model allows stakeholders to provide input on what they want to learn and how.

  • A test of the efficacy of additional incentives on maintained source separation rates.

  • The invitation and engagement of material stakeholders to an informed community discussion event.

The RESULTS

Our initiative increased the waste diversion rate on site one from an 11% average to a 50% average and site two from a 15% average to a 51% average.

Our key learnings from this pilot:

  • Contractors claim to care about recycling and rate their own knowledge of how to sort waste as high; it is interesting that that isn’t translating into real-world action, but makes for a great starting point.

  • ‘Ease of system use’ and ‘financial benefits’ are the two critical motivators of contractor source separation.

  • We are seeing positive changes in waste recovery rates at our pilot sites

  • External monitoring and an engaged site supervisor are integral to ongoing success; apathy is quick to creep in even with incentives.

  • Sites may benefit from smaller, more portable containers, particularly on multi-level sites with numerous trades operating.

  • Integrating this system at the start of a construction project is more straightforward than partway through.

  • The Bow Valley Regional Waste Commission is keen to move this pilot project forward and find support to finance the next phase's rapid development and implementation.

We received positive feedback from participants, including;

  • “I liked the education on recycling and finding out what happens at landfill”

  • “I’m happy to see this initiative happening!”

  • “I liked the awareness it creates; good program, keep it going!”

This project was funded through the National Construction and Demolition Circular Innovation Challenge