Construction demo - landfill or just fill?

Gearheadotaku wrote: landfill and be done with it. Being green is fine, but there is a limit.

you can always, like, totally plant a tree to make yourself feel better..

minimac wrote: Seems like a real conundrum! Wanting to be responsible, until it's going to cost you.

Thanks for the sarcasm, douche. Tastes good.

For your information, landfills are rarely managed, poorly overseen, and have mostly way overshot their capacity. The landfill for Indiana County is on top of a mountain and they just keep pushing E36 M3 over the side of the pile. Every time it rains, a river of chemicals, paint, dead bodies, and mercury floods down the side of the mountain. The Los Angeles county landfill is simply built over where the San Andreas fault meets the Simi fault. I guess they figure we'll have "the big one" before we have to worry about it. Not to mention, the big dollars we spent for single stream recycling in L.A.? They put new stickers on some of the trucks and they dump it all at the landfill. I personally witnessed it several times.

Plus (courtesy of Bush 1) if the EPA or water management agency discovers caustic runoff, the landfill simply needs to buy more pollution credits. Given their published $400M profit last year, Waste Management can afford a lot of pollution credits.

I refuse to pay for someone else to irresponsibly handle my trash if I can handle it here. Landfills being described as "responsible" is like saying that banks are "there to help the customer."

cut it up w/ sawzall n put in trash pickup

I cut / busted up everything that wasn't scrap metalish from a '85 XJ... glass, plastic, carpet, even rear hatch into garbage bags for curbside pickup

took a few weeks to move it all but well worth my $25/ mo. garbage bill

What's the condition of the linoleum? Habitat Re-Store might take it...only solves a little bit of your problem, but at least that way you're reducing the amount of net waste by a little bit.

good idea on the linoleum.. I would have never thought of that.

I would have no worries with tossing wallboard in the landfill.. no matter how poorly managed. Unless it is chinese, it is mostly gypsum and that will fill, settle, and help stabilise the landfill

not sure of the price but the big box hardware stores have this big green bag that you fill up and then they come and take it away. might be an option.

curtis73 wrote:

minimac wrote: Seems like a real conundrum! Wanting to be responsible, until it's going to cost you.

Thanks for the sarcasm, douche. Tastes good.

If you don't like the answer, don't ask the question. If you're looking to justify burying it in your yard, just do it. Being "green" can be expensive. A lot of people think it's O.K. to be green, as long as someone else is footing the bill. I'm not trying to be an asshat, just stating the harsh realities. Are you really going to loose sleep if you bury it? I doubt it. Is $85 to be responsible going to bankrupt you? I doubt it. Is it stupid to charge that much? Sure, but dude, it's 800 lbs.! You could always bag it up and run around at night and throw it someone's dumpster. Either way, it ends up in the ground. The landfills cart what they can that's burnable to an incinerator-equipped with scrubbers- and bury only what they have to. You seem to paint the idea of all landfills with a pretty broad brush. Not all are created equal and the counties spend millions of dollars annually to comply with the E.P.A. laws, whether it was Bush or Obama or Clinton or even Reagan(BTW, nice attempt to flounder). Life is full of compromises, but some choices are better than others. Sometimes, it costs to do the right thing.

Dig a hole at night and bury it.

minimac wrote: If you don't like the answer, don't ask the question. If you're looking to justify burying it in your yard, just do it. Being "green" can be expensive. A lot of people think it's O.K. to be green, as long as someone else is footing the bill. I'm not trying to be an asshat, just stating the harsh realities.

You're not being an asshat, I do need to hear all sides, we just disagree on the environmental impacts of landfills in general.

I'm confused.

You are opposed to landfills, except for having your own personal illegal landfill in your own back yard?

So you are happier with it being irresponsibly managed if it is irresponsibly managed by you?

So, the runoff goes through the rotting wood, rusting nails, linoleum glue, liquid nails, paint, stain and varnish. It soaks into your septic tank (or leech field) and is re-distributed in your own yard first (do you have a vegetable garden? Will the next owner?), then runs off to your neighbor's property, or the water table, or into the storm sewer where it can be conveniently distributed throughout the town.

Do you dump used motor oil in your garden too?

I know you jumped on minimac, and I'm about to get jumped on too, but come on, Curtis. How can you honestly suggest that your idea is that much better than the horrible government run system you seem to hate so much? Because it is small? Because it is secret? Because it is cheap? Because it is yours?

I find stuff like that occasionally when digging foundations, etc. I have never once said, "Oh look, what a nice environmentally forward thinking guy buried this little stash of toxins so it wouldn't have to contaminate the landfill". I always say, "What an asshat."

That's not the way a true environmentally conscious person would handle it. Don't be a cheapass.

curtis73 wrote: I'm allowed 1 trashcan, no more than 26 gallons total, everything must be in bags weighing no more than 25 lbs each and no more than 10 total bags. It would probably take about three years to get it all gone if I go that route.

Dude, that sucks!! I have two 50-gallon rolling trash cans, city provided! The previous owner had to pay for the second can but getting it emptied doesn't cost any extra. Of course I actually generate about 50 gallons of trash every 3 months but it's nice to have the extra capacity when it's needed.

has anyone mentiond the idea of piling it into the back of a pickup and "accidentally" leaving the tailgate down when you go for a spirited drive on a country road?

it works well with leaves and grass clippings..

I love it when people do that E36 M3 up and down my street. Always nice seeing some old tube tv in the ditch... Please put your trash in the proper place.

Also, Curtis, didn't you mean "Landfill VS just fill?"

novaderrik wrote: has anyone mentiond the idea of piling it into the back of a pickup and "accidentally" leaving the tailgate down when you go for a spirited drive on a country road? it works well with leaves and grass clippings..

Around here its a $400 ticket.

Where do the contractors in your area take their waste? Where do the dumpsters go? There must be a Waste Management construction disposal company around. I load up the back of my truck or trailer and haul demo to the local place where many guys with big loaders separate everything for recycling. Our local transfer station just put in a dumpster just for sheetrock waste along with the plastic, metal, paper and cardboard compactors.

dculberson wrote:

curtis73 wrote: I'm allowed 1 trashcan, no more than 26 gallons total, everything must be in bags weighing no more than 25 lbs each and no more than 10 total bags. It would probably take about three years to get it all gone if I go that route.

Dude, that sucks!! I have two 50-gallon rolling trash cans, city provided! The previous owner had to pay for the second can but getting it emptied doesn't cost any extra. Of course I actually generate about 50 gallons of trash every 3 months but it's nice to have the extra capacity when it's needed.

same here.. one can, 300pounds max... being single means I have to take it out every 2 weeks or it really begines to smell... otherwise it would be months till I filled it.