C&D Commodities Build Strength

If the first quarter is any indicator, 1997 may turn out to be one of the better years for the construction and demolition debris recycling industry. Cautious optimism, if not outright ebullience, can be found in most areas of the country. Fueled by several regulatory and research projects, the current growth trend promises to extend into the indefinite future.

The positive outlook is shared by Leonard Cherry, chief financial officer at Cherry Demolition, Houston. “We are projecting the strongest first quarter ever in our history,” he says. However, he is not yet willing to count on 1997 being a record year.

“It’s difficult to project a full year for demolition,” he says. “I can’t say that 1997, as a whole, will be a boom year. But the first quarter will be strong. And I see no reduction in the second quarter.” He says he hopes to do about $24 million in business in 1997, up from $17 million in 1996.

Both industrial and commercial jobs are currently available, says Cherry. From these jobs, steel and concrete are the staple commodities for Cherry Demolition. The steel goes mill-direct for processing and the concrete is crushed, thanks to Texas which now recognizes its use as recycled road base.

In the mid-Atlantic area, markets are also moving ahead. W. Hargrove Recycling, Camden, N.J., specializes in crushing clean concrete, brick, block and asphalt. “Everything is busy here,” says office manager Kelly Gipe.

An active commercial construction market is providing most of the raw material coming into Hargrove’s crusher. The recycled material typically is sold for use in highway construction projects.

Despite the winter weather, the company has enjoyed a reasonably strong volume of business. “We are running constantly,” says Gipe.

In Iowa, markets for metal and cardboard from C&D projects are quite active. Concrete and other aggregate substitutes also are moving well. The regional outlook is bright since a $483,000 grant from the Iowa Waste Management Assistance Division of the Iowa Department of Natural Resources, Des Moines, has gotten a fully integrated C&D recycling and disposal program off the ground in the Des Moines area.

According to Jeff Geerts, environmental specialist for the division, the project went operational in the beginning of October, 1996, and is doing well. Materials recovered include concrete, asphalt, cardboard, metals and wood.

Run by Central Construction and Demolition Recycling, the Des Moines project is supported by a sister operation, Corel Recycling, which crushes asphalt and concrete.

The facility is exploring the use of asphalt shingles for road base, as well. However, the shingles have to pass asbestos testing first. The company is also pulling out usable dimensional lumber and other building components which are donated to a local low-cost housing project. In one treasure trove, for example, a dozen steel doors were recovered – some still brand-new. Other wood is ground and used for animal bedding, fuel or landscaping.

To make it easier for local contractors to participate in recycling projects, Central Recycling teamed with Artistic Waste Services, a Des Moines hauler, to pick up source-separated material at construction sites. While there has been light activity to date, it is expected that the truck will be busier once the spring building season gets underway. Basically a roll-off truck with a grapple, the truck gives recyclers a chance to recover materials in a cleaner state, according to Geerts.

“That will save processing time and labor,” he explains. “The Metro Waste Authority (the local solid waste authority) has introduced the idea and laid the foundation. With the vehicle and the facility, we now have both the handling and the outlet provided.”

The project is targeting new construction sites, and much of the cardboard recovered from packing will go to a local Weyerhaeuser plant.

In the Northeast, Matthew Senior, president of the Epping Resource Recovery Facility, Epping, N.H., says there is an enormous amount of C&D material available for recycling. ERRCO is a mixed C&D material recovery facility which recycles about 97 percent, by weight, of what it takes in.

“We are not slow at all,” says Senior. “We could get a lot more material. It’s just that we can’t afford to match the tipping fees being charged by many of the landfills which are being closed.”

The state chose to close older landfills no longer in regulatory compliance by putting a time limit on these operations, rather than basing the closure on tonnage received. While he concedes that the goal is noble, the “date certain” system of closing landfills has led to a hauler’s market, according to Senior – tipping fees have gone as low as $23 a ton in an area where $45 or $50 would be more to his expectations. To make matters worse, some landfills are charging by the load, so haulers can dispose of as much weight as they can cram into a 100-cubic-yard truck.

“While it is a benefit to New England to close those landfills, currently the facilities are dropping prices to get as much money in as possible before they have to shut down,” he explains. And, while each landfill may have only a year or two of life left, the pressure on the local tipping market of 15 or 20 such operations is the same as a brand new facility with 30 years’ capacity.

With a $7 million plant to run, 45 employees on his payroll and taxes and electric bills to contend with, competition based on tipping fees alone is making the short-term market difficult in New Hampshire, says Senior.

“The date-certain closure of small landfills is counter-intuitive to what we are trying to do with recycling C&D,” he says. However, looking past the short-term, he sees a continued strong market in the area. His position should be solid, too, since ERRCO’s 97 percent recycling rate far exceeds the state-mandated 40 percent rate by the year 2000.

Cherry, in Houston, also faces low tipping fees. “Recycling options in the South are not the same as they are in other regions,” he says. “Recycling is cost driven. If it is profitable to recycle, everyone recycles. But tipping fees at landfills are low here, so it is difficult to recycle materials such as gypsum board.”

Ground wood waste, a major commodity in some regions, is all but non-existent in Texas since the state does not recognize it as a landfill cover. Tire recycling and concrete crushing are the major businesses.

“Concrete is the biggest of all along the Gulf Coast,” Cherry notes. This is because the coastal regions lack the native aggregates found in the hill country. From New Orleans through Houston and across the Gulf, crushed concrete is a strong C&D market.

Across the country in the San Francisco area, the outlook is so good that Raisch Products, San Jose, is looking to put three C&D plants into the East Bay area and continue to expand across the region. The company may even go nationwide, according to John Armando, manager of recycling market development. One driving force is AB-939, a law that required 25 percent reduction in the overall waste stream by 1995 and 50 percent by 2000. He notes that the “lower fruit” – cans and bottles – has been picked. C&D debris is a tougher market.

“We’ve been in C&D for more than 15 years,” he says. “To my knowledge, most C&D material still goes to the landfill.” He would like to change that. One way to do this is to join the recycling industrial park being proposed by Waste Management, Inc. and the city of San Leandro, Calif. Kevin McCarthy, divisional recycling manager at WMI’s Davis Street Station for Recycling and Transfer, says his facility is trying to encourage many different recyclers to locate nearby.

“We are a large generator of feedstocks and are trying to cut our transportation costs,” McCarthy explains. Rather than haul material out to the Central Valley, or send it overseas, the company is interested in getting a C&D debris processing plant, a paper recycler and a tire recycler to set up shop in the same industrial park.

To run a C&D plant like the one Raisch plans would require 60,000 to 80,000 tons per year. “We can supply 15,000 tons,” McCarthy says, “and that would give them a good base.” WMI is the largest single generator of business tax revenue in San Leandro, and the city knows the kind of work WMI does and is comfortable with expanding the job opportunities in the recycling arena.

Domtar Gypsum uses much of the cardboard gathered at Davis Street to make wallboard. Even the methane from the facility’s landfill is collected and used. “If we can keep the materials within a 10-mile radius, that would be a big improvement,” McCarthy says.

REGULATORY PUSH

There will, by necessity, be an ever-increasing amount of C&D debris recycled in the U.S., according to Michael Taylor, executive director of the National Association of Demolition Contractors, Doylestown, Pa. “Recycling is the way this industry is going to go,” he says. “In Europe, by the year 2010, all construction and demolition material will have to be recycled – none will be allowed to be landfilled. If it is happening in Europe, it will happen in the United States.”

Already, New York, Indiana and Wisconsin have aggressive specifications in place. Even a state like Texas – with 35 or more years of landfill space available and which disposes of material by volume, not weight – is pushing recycling of C&D materials. Development of specifications depends on the state. Some have aggressive, precise regulations on materials. Texas has available a CD-ROM which supplies specifications for recycling of C&D materials.

Like New Hampshire, Florida has passed a new C&D law that brings C&D landfills under more regulations, especially for closure and post-closure maintenance, groundwater assessment, operator training and reporting requirements.

One question is where all of the recycled material will find use. One obvious choice is to use recycled building materials when doing construction. But Peter Yost, project manager in the structures and environmental systems division of the National Association of Home Builders Research Center, Upper Marlboro, Md., says there is little demand from home buyers for high-recycled-content building materials. He notes that consumers are more concerned about the color of wallpaper and carpet than about recycled content. “We have to educate customers more,” he says.

Likewise, the public needs to better understand the difference between recycled content and recyclability. “Sometimes the customer and the builder do not understand the difference,” says Yost.

At projects like the closing of the Alameda Naval Air Station in California, de-construction is the rule. “We don’t see a lot of the material from those sites,” McCarthy says, noting that doors, large timbers and other usable material is set aside and reused.

Builders generally do not have a problem using recycled materials in construction projects. But, Yost says, they are looking for a single source from which to buy such materials.

On-site application and clean-up services are two new methods of managing construction waste that are currently being researched at the NAHB’s center.

Together, wood and drywall make up the lion’s share of the residential construction waste stream. Wood waste accounts for 40 percent to 50 percent of the material generated. Drywall is about 15 percent of job-site waste, or the equivalent of one pound per square foot of living space. Since the contractor’s main interest is in efficient, legal disposal of the materials at the lowest cost per square foot possible, the C&D specialist who can provide such services will likely find a eager market.

Armando says one of the reasons that so little C&D recycling is done now is because the material comes off the site commingled. However, Raisch has a grant from Alameda County to look into handling of specific materials, including asphalt shingles.

RECYCLING ON SITE

There is research looking into on-site disposal of material generated on construction sites. It is possible to grind up all wood waste and drywall and apply it to the site just prior to seeding or sodding the lot, according to NAHB research.

Many states or local governments require evidence that this approach does not harm soil or water quality. The Gypsum Association is sponsoring such research for drywall waste and NAHB’s center is working with the American Plywood Association to see if similar research can be conducted on wood waste.

If all wood waste and drywall could be handled in this way, containment, transportation, and landfilling costs would be eliminated for up to 65 percent of job-site waste, the researchers’ data shows.

Cardboard, used to package fixtures and appliances, is another large fraction of the waste stream. Quantities of old corrugated cardboard are increasing rapidly as more building components are delivered to job sites as finished products. Although it does not contribute much to the total weight of the project, OCC can be as much as 30 percent of the total volume.

Contractors usually do not consolidate cardboard waste. The result is frequent trips to the landfill for the dumpster or roll-off box. Since cardboard is largely comprised of wood fiber, it potentially could be incorporated in job-site recycling. However, some would argue that this is not the best use of the material.

A low-speed, low-noise mobile grinding unit is best suited for on-site processing of construction job wood and wallboard.

In areas as diverse as Portland, Ore.; Chicago; and Wilmington, N.C., builders are being serviced by haulers who charge by the square foot to take away construction debris. At the typical new construction site, waste goes into a roll-off box and is carted off to a dump. But there is a market opportunity for a entrepreneur with the right type of equipment to get in on the action.

Since new construction waste is generated at discrete times, it is usually source-separated at disposal. This means that the wood fraction from framing the house will be disposed of early in the job, the gypsum wallboard will be generated later, and most of the cardboard will come toward the end of the job.

Establishing a good relationship with a series of builders is key to a successful project. With the general market outlook appearing bright for the near future, programs to haul and recycle C&D materials should prove profitable.

“Right now, it looks pretty busy – but I don’t want to jinx it,” Gipe concludes.

The author is an environmental writer based in Strongsville, Ohio.