A construction trash chute could be the main factor behind a company’s financial well-being and employee safety. Construction trash chutes — also known as debris chutes — use gravity to quickly transport waste buildup from any part of the site to a designated trash area. A garbage chute improves operations and morale for numerous reasons, including making companies more environmentally aware and financially efficient.
Not many industries experience an impactful yet simple solution to a complex problem, but trash chutes offer various benefits. These are the most notable motivations.
1. Better Health and Safety
Construction workers face too many daily influences that could make them cash in on workers’ compensation. They can trip over materials, injure themselves from falling or expose themselves to toxic substances. This industry has some of the highest accident rates, and trash chutes could reduce them. They prevent productivity losses and health issues by reducing staff’s physical contact with harmful trash.
Waste piles could litter construction sites, affecting multiple departments within a project and not just the builders. Surveyors, management and inspectors will not have to interact with or inhale fungus, mould, air pollutants or toxic chemicals if kept in resilient, fire-resistant receptacles out of harm’s way. Workers could avoid acute illness or spontaneous injuries, as well as long-term respiratory or heart conditions related to continued exposure.
It’s essential to consider health most because it also helps overall sanitation. These are some of the most prominent health concerns among construction workers that a trash chute could help mitigate:
- Lung conditions
- High blood pressure
- Stress and anxiety in high-pressure environments
- Exposure to toxic substances like asbestos
- Sleep deprivation
- Auditory issues
Less money used for cleanliness because of one trash chute could save companies countless funds yearly, especially when it helps with compliance, like the Health and Safety at Work Act of 1974 in the United States. This keeps workers’ morale and health care in good stead so they can focus on projects.
2. Enhanced Efficiency and Productivity
Instead of carting bags and loads of trash around multi-level construction sites, trash chutes could streamline transport and eliminate wasted time. Builds can happen more swiftly if workers devote 100% of their attention to their jobs instead of managing waste. Combining chutes with trash compactors improves efficiency even more in managing weight and waste burdens, especially when they’re easily cleared with the right materials, preventing blockages and continued stops to operations.
A flooded waste pile on one construction site results in productivity issues. Trucks must load and transport trash to landfills, and the massive weight burdens transportation and typically uses fossil fuel.
Many issues could arise from transporting waste, but a construction trash chute eliminates them. Consider productivity losses from something as mundane as a traffic jam outside the company’s control, veering its waste management transportation mission off course.
The construction industry is known for waste management inefficiencies that cost over $3 trillion yearly in funds better allocated elsewhere. It’s to the point where companies are resorting to expensive drones or advanced technologies, but trash chutes could solve this issue without the high tech stack and learning curve.
Dealing with trash could derail a project. Companies must realize how much simpler it is to allocate space for easier manipulation and transport later, if necessary. Investing in a trash chute also embraces lean construction methods, which optimizes inefficiencies like overprocessing and wait times associated with waste management.
3. Empowered Sustainability Efforts
Everyone must embrace corporate social responsibility. Otherwise, the planet will suffer and a company could lose industry standing. Competitive advantage dissolves. Construction trash chutes are ideal for beginning a sweeping sustainability initiative because of how much environmental impact they mitigate. Raw materials and byproducts litter construction sites, including toxic chemicals and materials from demolition that linger in the air and water. Pollution abounds, and trash chutes contain it.
Analyses in the U.K. highlighted the intensity of the trash issue for construction and demolition sites. In 2020, the U.K. was responsible for 53.6 million tonnes of waste. It was nonhazardous, and over 90% was recovered, but the amount of recovered waste has changed little over the years. Companies must focus on decreasing the quantity of trash generated.
Companies that use trash chutes correctly could also separate materials for waste and recycling. Numerous items can be reused and upcycled, especially as supply chain issues prevent accessing needed materials. Allocating a designated area for recycling could help eco-consciousness and company resilience simultaneously.
The UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, the Paris Agreement and nations’ sustainability standards like the EU’s Net Zero objective can be reached using trash chutes on construction sites. Less energy required to maintain and control waste means companies can focus on creating structures that embrace circular thinking or closed-loop supply chains and be more eco-friendly.
4. Reduced Expenses
Trash chutes are an investment that reduces expenses in the long term. Countless hours on a construction site have workers carrying trash back and forth to the disposal area. Sometimes, it’s their dedicated job to be a waste management messenger. Otherwise, employees that should focus on their work need to take time to cart around trash. Trash chutes eliminate this distraction.
Trash chutes increasing worker safety will save companies money by reducing workplace-related accidents or illnesses related to questionably disposed of trash. Money could be redirected from health care costs into boosting employee wages, strengthening tech stacks for efficiency, undergoing process discovery or finding ways to make the construction sector more sustainable.
Lastly, more regulations and legislation revolving around sustainability and construction site cleanliness are being passed, and companies will need to invest in trash chutes to avoid hefty compliance fines. Not every country will assign penalties because a site doesn’t have a trash chute, but many will as it contains the spread of contaminants.
A Construction Trash Chute Makes the Industry Better
It makes sense for construction companies to invest in trash chutes to save money, preserve habitats and improve employee safety. Trash chutes are one of the few installations that net so many positive benefits, and the faster companies realize it, the better they will be in the eyes of their B2C and B2B clientele.
Contractors or employees should spread the word about how trash chutes could impact the sector and keep workplaces efficient and safe. They improve workers’ environments and strengthen biodiversity by minimizing garbage during builds.
