A green experiment: Sandia National Laboratories, New Mexico, puts construction materials recycling to the test

Construction & Demolition Recycling, Nov-Dec, 2006 by Kelly Ingalls

Sandia National Laboratories, New Mexico (SNL/NM) has joined the U.S. EPA Waste Wise Building Challenge Program. Although it did not participate in the grant program, SNL/ NM has provided a case study examining how C&D diversion and sustainable procurement can be coordinated within an organization, and its activities closely reflect the goals of the grant program and its intended outcome.

Construction and demolition debris comprises approximately 80 percent of the SNL/NM solid waste stream, which provides a significant opportunity to reduce its overall solid waste stream. Although New Mexico does not have the availability of recycling facilities and vendors that other more populated, industry-oriented areas of the country may have, recycling options were identified for the four primary construction materials: concrete, metal, wood and wallboard. In addition, the ongoing SNL/NM white paper and cardboard recycling program was expanded to include these materials generated from construction.

THINKING BIG

Sandia has both large and small construction projects. For example, large construction projects include the construction of a building while small construction projects might be a sidewalk repair or the remodeling a conference room. Two different approaches to recycling were evaluated and implemented based on construction project size.

Large construction projects are conducive to implementing recycling on the project site because sufficient quantities of materials can be accumulated on the site. After a sufficient quantity is accumulated it is cost-efficient to transport the material directly to a recycling facility rather than to a landfill.

Four factors lead to the success of recycling for large construction projects. These factors included revising construction contractual requirements, requiring project waste management plans, coordinating with recyclers and tracking/reporting recycling performance.

To ensure contractors would recycle applicable materials, the SNL/NM P2 staff developed a standard construction specification, Section 01505, Construction Waste Management. Because this specification is now included in the project construction procurement documents, recycling applicable materials is a contractual requirement. Additionally, the specification requires the contractors to develop a management plan and to track and report waste generation and recycling.

A waste management plan has become the primary planning tool for waste management activities conducted at a construction project. The plan requires the construction contractor to establish diversion goals, analyze material quantities and types, identify applicable recycling options and disposal methods, describe material handling procedures and to communicate the contents of the plan to site workers and subcontractors.

Coordination of recycling between the SNL/NM construction contractors and recycling facilities was an essential first step in implementing large project construction material recycling programs. SNL/NM construction contractors had not recycled construction debris as standard practice and did not know where to send material for recycling. To address this, SNL/NM P2 staff identified recyclers to accept materials and coordinated the collection, transportation and delivery for the contractors.

Metal recycling was coordinated through a local metal recycling vendor who was already under contract to SNL/ NM for other metal recycling services. Concrete reuse was coordinated with the Kirtland Air Force Base (KAFB) landfill to use clean, non-reinforced concrete for erosion control. SNLINM P2 staff developed pilot programs to recycle wood and wallboard. American Gypsum, which operates a wallboard manufacturing plant just outside Albuquerque, N.M., agreed to take clean, cut-off wallboard scraps for grinding and re-introduction into the raw gypsum feed stock. A local landscape material supplier agreed to take scrap wood for subsequent grinding to produce a mulch product for sale to the general public. As mentioned previously, cardboard and white paper were sent to SNL/NM's existing recycling program.

SNL/NM has begun implementing the requirements for large construction projects to segregate and recycle the six materials described above. Recycling of these materials during construction of the Joint Computational Engineering Laboratory (JCEL), a 64,500-square-foot building, resulted in 85 percent by weight (807 tons) of all construction debris being diverted from direct landfill disposal.

Although the JCEL construction contractor was initially skeptical of the program, this contractor now embraces the program as straightforward to implement with the added benefits of increased levels of site safety and housekeeping. The contractor further indicated that such procedures will be implemented on all future projects, regardless of government or commercial application.

Due to the recycling success of the JCEL project, a 377,000-square-foot-building complex implemented this recycling program. It is now standard practice at SNL/NM to recycle the six major construction material streams on large construction projects.