No Dumping

Mecklenburg County gets aggressive about C&D recycling.

Drive by any construction site and you will see looming piles of construction debris. Dumpsters are filled to the brim with wood, cardboard, metal and other construction materials.

Where does it all go once the homes or offices are built?

Typically, construction waste is dumped into landfills. Like many growing areas in the southeast, Mecklenburg County, North Carolina – the largest county in the state – is dealing with an unprecedented building boom that shows few signs of slowing despite the sluggish national economy. Consider this sobering statistic: In 2000, over a million tons of waste was generated in Mecklenburg County. A third of it came from the construction/demolition industry and much of it went into local landfills.

"For every 2,000-square-foot house built, 8,000 pounds of construction waste is generated," says Sandee Campbell, Mecklenburg County waste reduction specialist. "Multiply that by the number of new 2,000- square-foot homes being built in the county and imagine the amount of waste being transported to the landfill."

In response to this growing problem, Mecklenburg County is aggressively encouraging builders and developers to recycle their waste. The county’s construction materials recycling program is just one part of the county’s 10-year plan to reduce waste going into landfills by 23 percent. The effort is already paying off.

For the first time in Mecklenburg County, one of the world’s largest construction management firms has agreed to recycle the waste from a $22 million construction project in Charlotte. Bovis Lend Lease, New York, and each of its 40 sub-contractors working on the renovation of the Aldersgate Retirement Community will separate each type of construction debris right at the site, then turn it over to local recyclers.

Bovis Lend Lease is the construction management firm hired to oversee the design and construction of all new schools for the Charlotte-Mecklenburg School System—an $859 million project. The company is known worldwide for its innovative work in major construction projects including the Trump Tower in New York and all of the sporting venues, including the Olympic Stadium, for the 1996 Summer Olympic Games in Atlanta.

Bovis Lend Lease has teamed up with Mecklenburg County and Ford Container, Inc. (a Charlotte-based Minority Business Enterprise firm), to kick off the C&D recycling initiative. This will be the second project Bovis Lend Lease will conduct with full separation and recycling of construction debris. Project Manager II Derek McSween says, "Recycling is good for the environment and good for business. We are committed to this recycling program to keep as much waste as possible from going into local landfills."

Aldersgate is an award-winning retirement community. It was created in 1998 by the Methodist Home Inc. to replace the 56 year-old retirement facility located on the property. The latest phase (185,000 square feet) will include senior apartments, a community center including pool and executive offices, a memory support unit and various renovations and additions to the main facility.

Last year, Mecklenburg County and local homebuilder Portrait Homes, Charlotte, teamed up to recycle construction waste and reduce the amount of debris going to area landfills. The company and its contractors are sorting wood, cardboard and gypsum drywall at two townhouse projects – Kimmerly and Tyler Woods.

Each type of material is placed in the appropriate bin at the construction site for delivery to a local recycling center. Each type of material is deposited into a bin at the construction site and transported to the appropriate recycling site: wood to the County’s North Mecklenburg Recycling Center, cardboard to Plyler Paper Stock Co. in Charlotte, and sheetrock to Union Gypsum Inc. in Union County, N.C. The specially labeled recycling containers are being provided by Ford Container Industries (FCI), who will also haul them to local markets. TheDepartment of Solid Waste Management will monitor the recycling effort and track the amount of debris recycled.

"As a member of the Home Builder Cares program, Portrait Homes is striving to make a difference by recycling waste to keep this usable, clean material from going to a landfill. This builder cares about the environment and protecting our natural resources for future generations," says Campbell. The Kimmerly and Tyler Woods recycling projects are the first for Portrait Homes. Mecklenburg County officials are optimistic that other local homebuilders will implement similar programs in the near future.

"The recycling program has been a success," says Scott Sokoloski, production manager for Portrait Homes. The builder has overcome the hurdles and developed a strategy to implement a successful program. Portrait is currently working with two local waste haulers who provide specially labeled bilingual containers for each of the recyclable materials.

Allpoints Waste, Matthews, N.C., and BFI’s Charlotte facility are working to develop efficient and cost effective construction-recycling services in order to help their customers by offering comprehensive waste/recycling services to meet the needs of the changing industry.

The program is cost effective and has had added benefits, including maximizing all loads of materials and reducing litter on the job sites. To date, Portrait has recycled more than 40 percent of its waste. The company plans to include construction site recycling in all of its future projects in the Mecklenburg County area. Because the company has several new residential developments already in progress, the impact could be significant. "It’s a win-win program," Sokoloski says. "It’s good for the environment, good business and good for the community."

Portrait Homes expects to implement the construction recycling program at all of its projects. "We have more than a dozen projects in the Mecklenburg County area right now, and we hope to be recycling at all of them in the near future," says Sokoloski, Portrait Homes production manager. "Eventually, we hope to recycle at all of our projects across the Carolinas."

Brick by brick, the old office buildings at the Central Piedmont Community College (CPCC) came down, but were not sent to a local landfill. Over the last four months, Linda Construction, a local Charlotte demolition contractor, Mecklenburg County and CPCC worked together to reuse and recycle almost all of the 22,000 square foot office buildings and parking lot materials.

The County and CPCC agreed to see just how much waste could be reused or recycled from the old facility. Linda Construction made a concerted effort to salvage any materials possible and recycled almost all the waste after demolishing the structure. Everything from doors to sinks, signs, trees, parking stops and even an old storage trailer were donated to non-profit organizations including churches and the local chapter of Habitat for Humanity. Remaining parts of the remaining structure, including the brick, concrete, metal, asphalt and ceiling tile, were transported to recycling facilities throughout the area. Several trees were taken down, but the lumber was milled and will be used in the construction of the replacement facility.

The project results are impressive. More than 79 percent of the total waste was recycled, which doesn’t include all the materials donated to other organizations. Results from this project have convinced many that it’s time to focus on reusing and recycling this waste stream. Like many communities across the country, Charlotte is continuing to experience significant growth, and the demolition waste is increasing annually. The county hopes to encourage more recycling and reuse of demolition waste rather than filling up local landfills.