Commodities

CCA SEEN AS CRITICAL ISSUE

Wood treated with chromated copper arsenate (CCA) will present potential recycled wood products contamination, a regulator from the State of Florida told attendees of the C&D World conference in Fort Lauderdale.

Laws are being passed in several states confining scrapped CCA-treated wood to lined landfills, noted William Hinkley of the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (DEP).

Hinkley, chief of the Bureau of Solid and Hazardous Waste in the Florida DEP, cited Florida, Virginia and New York as states that have identified CCA-treated wood as a potential hazard because of the presence of arsenic and hexavalent chromium.

CCA-treated wood is most often used in outdoor applications such as decking, fences and exterior stairways, said Hinkley, who added that most C&D recyclers who process wood currently try to hand separate CCA-treated wood before it is shredded or otherwise processed.

When treated wood enters a recycled wood product such as landscaping mulch, it can boost the presence of arsenic and hexavalent chromium well above levels identified as unsafe by the U.S. EPA. Hinkley related one anecdote of two homeowners in Key Largo, Fla., who contracted arsenic poisoning allegedly from a load of contaminated mulch.

CCA-treated wood became popular in the late 1970s because of its ability to repel insect infestations. One study conducted for Florida estimates that more than 30,000 tons of arsenic has entered the Sunshine State in the form of treated wood since the 1970s. "Recyclers are seeing it now because it is being retired as building stock," Hinkley noted.

The good news is that CCA is being phased out in favor of less toxic copper-based treatments. But recyclers will continue to face the challenge of identifying and sorting the material out when it enters their facilities.

CCA-treated wood is also bringing scrutiny to C&D recyclers because of its ability to cause ground water contamination problems.

The C&D World conference, sponsored by the Construction Materials Recycling Association (CMRA), took place in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., Jan. 19-22.

OVER AND ABOVE

Taylor Recycling Facility, Montgomery, N.Y., has the same variety of mixed materials coming in its doors as many other C&D recyclers. Where it distinguishes itself, says the company’s Tom Kacandes, is in its attention to the purity of the products being shipped.

When the company creates a product, it "refines a resource into a specific material that meets or exceeds company expectations," says Kacandes.

Such a mentality, he continued, separates true recyclers from those with a disposal mentality. Garbage or disposal companies want to "get rid of it," said the New York recycler. "A lot of garbage companies don’t understand [the recycling] mentality."

Taylor Recycling has worked with manufacturing firms such as U.S. Gypsum that have insisted on a clean product that would not cause production hassles. Kacandes says the company "worked backwards" to first understand U.S. Gypsum’s needs and then to put a system in place to turn scrap drywall into a product that would fill that need.

The end result has been an exclusive contract to supply the nearby U.S. Gypsum plant with a secondary product that costs 40 percent less than the primary gypsum shipped in from Nova Scotia. It took Taylor Recycling 72 weeks of inquiry, testing and negotiation before the contract was signed.

The only way the arrangement was reached though, says Kacandes, was through demonstrating quality. "In general, our industry needs to be more serious about product quality," he remarked.

Kacandes stated that the industry needs to overcome early shared mistakes that led to low product quality, often because of inexperience, the use of non-customized equipment and a lack of understanding of customer quality needs.

He urged C&D recyclers to "put product requirements first, then design a system." Kacandes added that a good system should be flexible to meet shifting quality requirements and what should hopefully be a mixed base of several customers.

NYC HOME TO RE-USE CENTER

Astoria Residents Reclaiming Our World (ARROW), a Queens-based nonprofit environmental group, will open what it is calling "the first building materials reuse center in New York City" in March in the Long Island City neighborhood of Queens.

A launch event is taking place Friday evening, March 7, and will include brief remarks by the ARROW staff, a tour of the facility and a reception with live music and refreshments.

ARROW’s leaders say the re-use center is based on models up and running in other cities across the country such as The ReBuilding Center in Portland, Ore., and Urban Ore in Berkeley, Calif.

ARROW’s center will offer building materials at discount prices for the individual homeowner and small contractor markets. Fixtures, doors, sinks, shelving, kitchen cabinets, sheetrock, lock sets and many other items will be offered for sale secondhand.

The center’s inventory will be drawn from materials donated by New York residents and businesses. ARROW says it will accept bathroom fixtures, cabinets, light fixtures, metal and wood doors, windows, furniture, kitchen fixtures and small quantities of dimensional lumber. The group is already receiving materials at the site at 51-02 21st Street at Borden Ave. in Long Island City. Donations are accepted during limited hours and are tax deductible.

The start-up of ARROW’s new reuse center was funded through Waste-Free NYC, a waste prevention program managed by INFORM and funded by the City Council through the Department of Sanitation of New York City (www.inform inc.org). INFORM is a New York City nonprofit environmental research organization based in Manhattan.

Says Nicole Tai, ARROW’s Reuse Center Project Manager. "By collecting and selling these materials, ARROW is showing New York that we can rethink the way we look at ‘trash.’ We can develop new local economies that will create jobs and at the same time help clean up our neighborhoods and the environment."

Tai notes that the San Francisco Bay Area supports over five profitable reuse centers – some of which she says net over $1.5 million in sales per year. The centers supply "green" (sustainable-practice) and/or economical builders with materials, and act as clearinghouses for a burgeoning deconstruction industry, she says.

The center’s officers hope it will help spur interest in deconstruction in New York City.