USG provides gypsum, ceiling panel recycling

Construction & Demolition Recycling, Sept-Oct, 2006

USG Corp. has announced that its gypsum recycling program partner, Gypsum Recycling America LLC (GRA), started collecting gypsum wallboard scrap, which will be recycled and reused in USG'S wallboard manufacturing operations. USG also announced that it will collect and recycle customers' used ceiling panels as part of the company's new USG Ceiling Panel Recycling Program.

"With these two programs, we're helping to divert thousands of tons of waste from landfills and reusing it for wallboard and ceiling panel production, while also helping our customers and others lower their waste disposal fees," says David Wonnell, director, Environmental and Manufacturing Services at USG Corp., Chicago.

GRA's first facility started collecting wallboard scrap from new construction in March. This fall, the scrap will be processed by a new mobile recycling machine. The processing machine converts the material into a gypsum powder that USG's plant in Charlestown, Mass., can reuse in making new wallboard.

GRA's Cambridge recycling facility can process a permitted capacity of 60,000 tons of recycled gypsum per year. As GRA expands in the Northeast, USG's plants in Stony Point, N.Y., and Baltimore will also purchase the reprocessed gypsum. Massachusetts was chosen as GRA'S first site because of the state's strong interest in gypsum recycling, according to USG.

The company has also announced that its customers can now recycle pre-approved ceiling panels made by USG or other manufacturers and, once customers have a full truckload, USG will pay the way.

USG's Ceiling Panel Recycling Program accepts panels from the continental United States and parts of Canada. USG will reuse the recycled panels to manufacture new ceiling products. The company already recycles and reuses ceiling panels that are damaged during manufacturing. Many of USG's ceiling panels also use recycled paper and contain mineral wool made of slag, a byproduct of steel production.