Waste Management Plan

A couple years ago, while we were in the very early stages of planning, I ran across a great, easy read called Your Green Home, A Guide to Planning a Healthy, Environmentally Friendly New Home. The author is Alex Wilson, a pioneer and leader in the green building movement. It has influenced many aspects of our plan, probably more than any other resource. Chapter 11, Dealing With Construction Waste presents several opportunities for our builder to learn new tricks.

Typical practice in East Tennessee involves growing a huge pile of all manner of construction site waste which is then burned on site. Too often, construction rubble is just pushed into a big hole on site, covered with soil and left to rot and/or poison groundwater. We had such a bury hole in the back yard of our last house; a Shore built house on Southcliff Drive. I worked for years to remove junk and fill the hole as it rotted and sunk into the yard. It really pissed me off and I vowed to never have another house that that builder or his sub's were involved in.

Among the new tricks we are executing on this build: A Waste Management Plan is required by the contract. The point of it is to be sure the builder looks for every opportunity to REDUCE, REUSE and RECYCLE. Our plan includes things like; On site segregation and use of recycle bins for plastics, metal wastes and paper/cardboard. Removal of nails and stacking of lumber scrap. We'll encourage reuse of usable timbers that way. Untreated scrap that's too short, split or odd shaped to reuse will be stacked for our use as kindling. (We also plan a few bonfires as cool weather rolls in. I understand Krispy Kims are yummy off the camp fire). Scrap wallboard is usually a landfill filler around here. Not on our job! We'll collect it, pulverize it with a brush chipper and use it as a soil amendment in the garden. After all, it's just gypsum (Calcium Sulfate) pressed between two layers of biodegradable paper. Gypsum is a prised soil amendment in Tennessee Red Clay soil. I think we'll even want more than we can make from the waste drywall.

I've already taken one load of recyclables the the recycling center. BR2 now has built these nice big bins and begun to use them. It's clear we've still got some educating to do, but its a good start. This treehugger is happy!

Oooooops....

Where, exactly, is that greywater collection system?

There is value in being able to stop by the build site almost every day. The plan for this week was to finish the underslab rough-in plumbing and be ready to pour the slab on Monday. Not so fast my friend!

The plumber did his thing and was awaiting a building inspector when I stopped by Wednesday evening. Upon my review, I noticed that there was only one drain system, just like a conventional home. As the most causal reader of this blog knows, however, we aren't building a conventional home. OUR plan calls for segregation of "black" water from "grey' water (i.e. toilets, kitchen sink, dishwasher etc. separate from showers, tubs and laundry) so that in drought-like times we can treat the greywater and keep landscaping, garden and orchard alive. This water conservation technique hasn't been considered much in East TN because of the amount of rain we get in normal times. Have you noticed...these are not normal times! Although we do not plan to install a greywater treatment system now (due to budgetary constraints), we DO plan to have the segregated piping installed in the floor and walls to make future treatment easily available. When/if climate change driven prolonged drought comes to Tennessee, we'll be ready.

Our builder is now in contact with the County inspector to get them on-board with our plans. The inspector has NEVER encountered greywater collection so we'll have a few days delay while he figures out what to be alert to and/or concerned about. This is but one example of the type delays we expect. This is why, when the builder says 6 or 7 months to build, we've assumed 9 or 10. We don't want to rush past the opportunities to build it right! Remember the old addage; "GOOD, FAST, or CHEAP; pick any two"! We'll go with Good and Cheap, not fast. Sooooo... we take a few days delay; let the plumber rework the drain lines and the County get comfortable with it all. We can wait.

There are lots of resources on the web about this stuff, mostly originating the the arid Southwest (California and Arizona). One such resource can be found here: http://www.greywater.com/synopsis.htm

A Tough Decision Made...

What am I really? A conservative Chemical Engineer or a dirt-worshiping tree-hugger? We've just made one decision that brought those two sides of my world view into direct conflict. The decision on which waterproofing and insulation system to use directly affects the "greenness" of the home via material selection. The conflict has to do with how to implement the underground (therefore irreversible) waterproofing and insulation system that will be installed on the poured-in-place concrete basement walls on the up-hill side of the house.

The tree-hugger in me desperately wants to be a leader in the emerging Green building movement. He wants to use a slick new spray-on soy based foam system that allegedly is stable for years and waterproofs at the same time it insulates. The blowing agent (what makes it foam up) is not a greenhouse gas contributor and so the advocate for renewable resources and climate protection in me loves it! It's reaaaallllly green. BUT...Sue and I have said from the get-go that we want to be leaders in the green building field; not fanatics.

The ChE in me knows that there is nothing more waterproof and stable over the long haul than dead dinosaurs (petroleum based mastic). It's been underground for millennia not just years. We know how it will fare underground over the life of the building and we know (if done right) it will not leak and will not need to be dug up and replaced in a decade or so. We also know that Styrofoam (Dow's trademarked, closed cell, extruded polystyrene foam) is stable for decades because it, too, is made from dead dinosaurs. The problem with petroleum mastic and Styrofoam is that both are the definition of non-renewable. There ARE no more dinosaurs who will die, rot, be compressed for eons and kindly re-supply us with petroleum products. Further, the blowing agent used in Styrofoam production for 60 years is a VERY powerful contributor to global warming (much more so than the CO2 that everyone hears about).

As someone who KNOWs global warming AND depletion of resources to be a problem, I was really torn. Which system is the responsible choice?

At the end of the decision day, I had to go with the conservative Chemical Engineer in me and opt for tried and true. Petroleum mastic and 3 inches of Dow blue Styrofoam. My decision ultimately came down to resting on two principals of green building. THE most important factor in sustainability is "build to last". Do not build something with built-in obsolescence that will be pulled down and replaced in a few years or even decades. The second most important principal in sustainable building is energy conservation. Build a house that is very energy efficient and over it's life, the minimised energy uses of the building will be both economical and green. Leadership always involves compromise. The challenge is in picking the right compromises to make. I hoped I was making the right compromise.

As it turns out, a week after agonizing over this choice I got some great news. My buddies at Dow have been busy(I used to work in a Dow environmental consulting group and my last engineering assignment was at Dow's Freeport, TX facility). Dow Styrofoam is now formulated with a non- greenhouse gas blowing agent. Beginning in early 2009, they've converted their Styrofoam production facilities to the new technology; starting in Dalton, GA. It's sill not renewable.... but my hot button; Global Warming Potential (GWP) has been relieved. Had I known this two weeks ago, the decision would have been much easier. Now I know we made the right call!