C&D News

The Napa Valley (California) Waste Management Authority has chosen a new operator for the Devlin Road Transfer Station, which will focus on increasing construction and demolition debris recycling to boost recycling rates, according to a report in the Napa Valley Register (Napa, Calif.).

The Devlin Road Transfer Station collects material from Napa, American Canyon, Vallejo and unincorporated areas in the south county. According to the report, heavy items like C&D debris were bypassing the recycling system under the old operator. The new operator, Northern Recycling Operations and Waste Services, will begin screening C&D debris and pickup loads from individuals for recyclables.

When the company takes over July 1, it plans to hire an additional 20 employees and to install outdoor screening equipment to collect wood, concrete, scrap metal and plastic from the C&D stream, according to the report.

The city hopes boosting C&D debris recycling will increase its overall recycling rate by 10 to 20 percent.

The Rhode Island Supreme Court has decided in favor of opponents of a proposed waste transfer station in Pawtucket, R.I., according to a report in the Providence Journal (Providence, R.I.).

The high court has granted lawyers for the city and neighboring property owners permission to appeal a Supreme Court justice’s ruling that the proposed facility is permitted by local zoning regulations, the report states.

The proposal by Pawtucket Transfer Operations would be the second largest demolition debris processing facility in New England if it is allowed to go forward. It would be capable of processing up to 2,000 tons per day.

The waste transfer station was proposed for an eight-acre site in 2003. When it was first proposed, the developers obtained a certificate of zoning compliance from the city’s building official. According to the report, public opposition to the proposal arose, and the director of the Department of Planning and Redevelopment revoked the certificate. The developers then took the city to court, laying the foundation for the current legal battle.

Metalico Transfer Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Metalico Inc., has purchased the assets of Compass Environmental Haulers Inc., a construction and demolition debris transfer station in Rochester, N.Y.

Metalico Transfer holds a permit authorizing it to receive up to 500 tons per day of C&D material for recycling and disposal. The facility is situated on approximately five acres, which is suitable to accommodate Metalico’s plan to operate at permitted capacity.

The company also has announced that it received a conditional use permit from the Town of Chili, N.Y., to construct and operate a metal shredder on the operating premises of its Metalico Rochester Inc. subsidiary.

The company expects to produce as much as 20,000 tons per month of shredded steel and associated non-ferrous metals.

"While the Compass acquisition is relatively small, it has opened our horizons to a business and industry that we know well and have experience in and has logistics synergies with our scrap metal operations," Metalico President Carlos Aguero says. "When completed, the shredder will allow us to tie together our entire scrap metal buying network in the Rochester, Buffalo and Syracuse geographic region representing a combined population of more than 3 million people."

The company expects its shredder project to take up to one year to complete before operations commence, assuming no delays in the acquisition, installation or final permitting processes.

Metalico Inc., based in Cranford, N.J., is a holding company with operations in ferrous and nonferrous scrap metal recycling and in fabrication of lead-based products. The company operates seven recycling facilities and five lead fabrication plants in five states.

The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) has approved the environmental assessment for the proposed expansion of the Phoenix Resources Inc. construction and demolition debris landfill in Duncan Township, Pa.

"The DEP’s waste management program has conducted a detailed review of the environmental assessment presented for the Phoenix Resources Inc. landfill and it has determined that the benefits of this proposed expansion clearly outweigh the known and potential harms," says Roberet Yowell, DEP’s Northcentral regional manager. "Today’s approval means that the department will proceed with our technical review of the application for expansion of the existing landfill."

Phoenix Resources submitted a permit application in August 2005 to add 66 acres of disposal area to the site that would extend the life of the landfill for another 10 years. During the review of the company’s environmental assessment, the DEP received numerous letters from local businesses, watershed groups and municipalities favoring the expansion.

Under state law, the environmental assessment process for landfills requires the applicant to submit a detailed harms/benefits analysis of the potential impact of the proposed facility on public health and safety and the environment. The analysis must describe known and potential harms from the project and a mitigation plan to deal with potential harms and demonstrate that the public benefits of the project clearly outweigh the known and potential harms.

USG Corp. has announced that its United States Gypsum Co. subsidiary is building a gypsum plant in Stockton, Calif. Additionally, the company’s L&W Supply distribution subsidiary agreed to acquire California Wholesale Material Supply Inc.

The new wallboard plant, expected to cost around $220 million, will be operational by 2010.

CALPLY is a building materials distribution company with annual sales approaching $600 million, 30 operating locations in seven Western states and Mexico and almost 900 employees. The acquisition of CALPLY is expected to enhance L&W Supply’s ability to serve its West Coast and Southwest customers. The acquisition has been approved by USG’s board of directors, but remains subject to usual and customary regulatory reviews and other customary closing conditions.

"These two initiatives complement one another, fit perfectly into our long-term vision to strategically grow USG and will enhance the company’s earnings per share," says William Foote, chairman and CEO of USG Corp. "Over the long term, we are committed to replacing our older, higher-cost wallboard manufacturing capacity with new, low-cost capacity, thus solidifying our position as the industry’s low-cost producer. When it is completed in 2010, the new Stockton plant will replace two high-cost manufacturing lines in California that were closed previously. Most importantly, the new Stockton plant will support the growth of USG’s customers in one of the largest markets in the U.S., where wallboard demand over the last decade has been growing considerably faster than the rest of the country."

The wallboard plant will have the capability of producing 1 billion square feet of wallboard per year. The facility will use 100 percent recycled paper for the surfaces of the finished wallboard products and recycle 100 percent of its production scrap. The new plant will feature a closed-loop liquid effluent system, which translates to zero discharge into nearby waterways, according to USG.