The process of collecting, sorting and reusing debris following a disaster also provides a way to immediately provide funds and other resources into a disaster-affected community, for instance through labor-intensive public works cleanup programs. This input of resources assists disaster survivors in financing grassroots post-disaster recovery.
This Quick Guide focuses on disaster debris, or the physical items which have been damaged as a result of the disaster and can no longer be used as originally intended. Disaster debris can include: • Household items, • Vehicles, • Personal possessions, • Damaged or destroyed buildings, including bricks, broken concrete, reinforcing iron, wood, roofing, electrical wiring and piping, • Materials from damage to roads, railways and other infrastructure, • Materials collected in irrigation canals, water ponds, lagoons and rivers, • Hazardous materials, and, • Sand, gravel and wood and other vegetative matter transported by disaster agents.