C&D News

Demolition and construction contractors in Massachusetts are studying pending regulations that will ban many types of C&D debris from entering landfills.

A solid waste master plan to be adopted by the state addresses C&D materials in several ways, including banning materials generated at C&D sites from entering landfills except as residue after passing through a C&D recycling facility.

Between now and 2003, when the proposed ban will take place, the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) intends to boost end markets for materials that do not have established recycling infrastructures, including wood, asphalt shingles, gypsum drywall and carpeting.

According to C&D recycler John Kelso, executive vice president with Jet-A-Way Inc., Roxbury, Mass., such end market boosts will be needed.

A percentage of the company’s bulkier processed material, consisting of soil and other fines, is being used as daily cover at landfills that will be closed as part of the state’s master solid waste plan.

To make up for that loss, Kelso says the company will have to find value-added market opportunities for the 30 to 40% of incoming mixed C&D materials consisting of wood.

Like other northeastern states, Massachusetts has high landfill tipping fees, which allows mixed C&D recyclers to charge high tipping fees to haulers.

The state’s landfill capacity is considered chronically short, which has spurred an existing C&D recycling industry of a dozen or so mixed C&D recycling facilities in the compact state. Not only do haulers seek to send material to out-of-state landfills, but even recyclers like Kelso send residue out of state. “We ourselves have shipped as far as Ohio,” he notes.

And while the state master plan in theory allows new landfills to be opened, Kelso says a recent state court decision makes the siting of such landfills unlikely. The court “ruled that a town can object to a facility on almost any grounds, so the reality of siting a landfill is going to be very difficult,” says Kelso.

Massachusetts officials said they will only enforce the ban in 2003 if they conclude that an adequate infrastructure exists to recycle banned materials. The DEP has set a goal of an 88% recycling rate on C&D material by 2010.

The state is offering grants to companies that refurbish and sell materials for re-use, and has studied the stream of materials in other states. As portrayed in a recent Boston Globe article, three-quarters of the demolition waste stream is already effectively recycled, including metals, concrete and asphalt.

Congress Considers Two Highway Recycling Bills

Two bills introduced into the U.S. House of Representatives by Robert Andrews (D-N.J.) would benefit the C&D recycling industry, according to the Construction Materials Recycling Association (CMRA), Lisle, Ill.

H.R. (house resolution) 529 would authorize the Secretary of Transportation to require the use of recycled materials in Federal-aid highway projects, while H.R. 530 would require a percentage of state apportioned funds to go toward recycled materials.

The bills were originally introduced in the 106th Congress as H.R. 778 and H.R.779, but were never voted on in that session.

H.R. 530 would require that 10% of the annual funds apportioned to a state for the surface transportation programwould be earmarked for recycled materials.

CMRA is asking its members to contact their Congressional representatives to urge support of the measures.

or to contact the CMRA if they need guidance on how to contact their representatives.