The business case for smarter construction recycling

By Emma Peterson. 

Woodchuck.ai rethinking how jobsite waste is handled in order to support sustainability goals while creating measurable financial benefits. 

Sustainability has become a key talking point for contractors. As John Kenney, the CEO of Cotney Consulting Group put it, “Not that long ago, sustainability discussions were limited to a handful of projects...Today, that conversation has become much more mainstream. Building owners are asking about energy efficiency, architects are exploring sustainable design options and municipalities are increasingly adopting standards that encourage greener building practices.” And as this demand for more sustainable practices rises, it is crucial that contractors not only consider the sustainability of the products they are installing, but also the sustainability of their building practices. 

This idea, of building more sustainable practices in addition to products, is what Todd Thomas and the team at Woodchuck.ai focuses on. We got the chance to learn more about their work and its benefits on an episode of Contractor Outlook™ we recorded with Todd. 

What Woodchuck.ai does is bring dumpsters to jobsites. But rather than your typical, throw everything and the kitchen sink into the same place, these dumpsters are designed to be used for material sorting. In fact, they utilize cameras and artificial intelligence software to help ensure that materials are separated properly. Then, when a dumpster is full, the Woodchuck.ai team can collect it, and take that sorted material, whether that’s asphalt products or wood products, and recycle it easily because it’s already sorted. 

Todd described how this separating and recycling of materials is such a good thing for sustainability, sharing, “We have a finite number of landfills across the United States and if you look at these landfills, they're often 30-40% wood by volume. And that wood is coming from things like construction site mixed dumpsters.” He went on, “So if we can get crews to sort their materials, we can keep that wood out of the landfill, extend the life of that landfill and get additional value out of that wood all at the same time.”  

And the best part of this whole set up? Not only can contractors feel good about their impact on the environment, it also can give them financial benefits. Todd explained:  

It might seem like a big change to start sorting materials, but it’s something that actually is pretty easy after you do it once and comes with benefits beyond sustainability. For example, we just partnered with a contractor who worked on Ford’s EV battery factory in Marshall, Michigan. Over the course of that project, we diverted 10,000 tons of wood from the landfills and instead were able to turn it into 10,000 megawatts of clean electricity. In addition to being an incredible win for sustainability, that diversion also returned a savings to the contractor of $1.6 million!  

With that kind of savings, it’s hard to deny the positive impact the Woodchuck.ai team is providing for both the environment and contractors in the field. As Todd put it, “If we can extend the life of our existing landfills by making sure that valuable materials don't get buried there, it's a win for everybody. It's a win for the contractor, it's a win for the community and it's a win for whoever was going to have the next landfill next to them.” 

Listen to the whole episode or Watch the recorded episode to learn more about Woodchuck.ai.