Residential Construction Waste Management Demonstration and ...

Grand Rapids, Michigan"
Doug Woods, Director of the Kent County Department of Public Works, gave a short statement
on C&D landfill disposal capacity in the county. Capacity across the county is large, with over
20 years remaining in the county owned/operated Type II landfill and privately owned capacity
exceeding 50 years. Tipping fees, currently at $29.52/ton, are expected to remain stable or
perhaps decrease slightly due to extensive landfill capacity. Operating costs for the county
landfill are actually approximately $17/ton, with overhead charges added to this figure to support
recycling programs and to close/maintain/monitor older, obsolete landfills.
Tim Wright, Director of the local office of Department of Natural Resources - Solid Waste spoke
briefly regarding the state's role in construction waste management. He discussed on-site
disposal or use of inert construction materials such as brick, block, dirt, and pure wood fiber
wastes, but cautioned against the on-site re-use of other construction waste materials, such as
gypsum board or wood composite materials, before testing was conducted to ensure the
acceptability of such practices. Tim clarified that any construction waste materials source
separated at the job site are not regulated in any way and require no licensing to handle or
transport.
Lisa Kapp from the state office of recycling discussed the existence of a $50 million bond, a state
fund for recycling projects or research efforts into the recovery of waste materials. (She further
added an application deadline of early December, 1994.)
Portland, Oregon
As previously mentioned, Portland has well established recycling markets for construction waste.
Driven by both a strong conservation-ethic, and the local government's commitment to waste
management, the city states that approximately 45 percent of the area's 1993 C&D waste was
diverted from the landfill. To further their success, the workshop participants offered several
material-specific discussions during the workshop. They are as follows.
Although significant recovery of wood waste is done in the Portland area, 75% of the total is
used as an industrial fuel source, while 25% is recovered as furnish and used in the production
of wood products. This situation could be changing over the next several years. Many current
users of construction and demolition wood waste as a fuel source are switching to Co-generation
operations or to natural gas for economic and air emission considerations. The relatively "clean"
nature of residential new construction wood waste should present continued good prospects for
recovery as the use of wood waste as a fuel begins to give over for its use in manufacturing
processes.
Recycling of drywall in the metro Portland area consists largely of agricultural use of the
material. The ground or processed gypsum material is used as a soil amendment, in mushroom
22 Workshop summaries were written after each workshop and sent to all participants for their information
and review. These summaries were submitted to the EPA project manager as part of monthly status reports.
The information in Appendix A is taken directly from these summaries.