Email Outage: Sept. 6 - 9

The South Carolina Department of Environmental Services migrated email services over the weekend and staff were unable to send or receive messages from 5 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 6 until 7:30 a.m. Monday, Sept. 9. Thank you for your patience as our team works to respond to any messages received during this time. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause and appreciate your understanding as we make this transition to better serve you in the future.

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Construction & Demolition Debris - Builders/Contractors

Why reduce, reuse, repurpose, or recycle construction and demolition (C&D) debris?

Responsible C&D debris management can result in the recovery of a considerable amount of material with both environmental and economic benefits. 

The benefits may include:

•    Conserving resources;
•    Reducing waste;
•    Lowering disposal costs;
•    Reusing material on site or future project;  
•    Eliminating unnecessary expenses for new material; 
•    Earning revenue from the sale of recovered material; and
•    Being more competitive on job bids.

What are items that can be recovered? The list includes:

•    Kitchen cabinets and sinks;
•    Bathroom sinks, vanities, tubs, and toilets;
•    Doors;
•    Energy-efficient windows;
•    Hardwood flooring;
•    Stone or solid-surface countertops;
•    Lighting fixtures;
•    Furniture;
•    Non-hazardous painted, treated, and coated wood;
•    Gypsum wallboard;
•    Working, newer appliances; 
•    Bricks, concrete, rock, and other masonry material; and
•    Landscape material.

Builders/contractors can recover this material by employing best management practices and other actions. Here are tools to assist.

•    The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency provides information on the best management practices.
•    DHEC offers How to build a successful job site C&D debris recycling plan 
•    South Carolina has more than 80 C&D debris recyclers throughout the state.
•    Additional resources can be found here.

The first step in the sustainable management of material is prevention.

Here are a few prevention recommendations:

•    Re-evaluate estimates of material needed to ensure the correct amount.
•    Buy material that is delivered in returnable containers or with minimal/no packaging.
•    Ask suppliers to take back or buy back substandard, rejected, or unused items.
•    Consider buying good quality, previously used building material (e.g., doors, fixtures).
•    Monitor storage practices to reduce material loss from weather or other causes.