"Innovations" Case Studies: Mixed C&D Processors

Local Government Challenges, Opportunities, and Tips

Local Government Challenges and Opportunities

The availability of these new facilities is of great significance to local governments. Where these mixed C&D processing facilities exist, local governments can encourage or require the processing of all or portions of C&D materials. Different tools could be used to accomplish this goal, such as:

• Providing incentives of lower city fees, where the contractor preprocesses all C&D materials or meets targeted diversion goals.
• Providing technical assistance to residents, contractors, and developers on where to take C&D debris to reuse, recycle, or compost it (including providing guides on counters of permit-issuing departments).
• Adopting requirements to preprocess all C&D generated from city-sponsored construction and demolition projects.
• Adopting requirements that all C&D projects, public or private, process all C&D debris before any can be landfilled.
• Adopting requirements that a city’s franchise hauler process all C&D debris that it collects before any can be landfilled.

Additional ideas for how local governments can influence the amount of C&D recovered in their communities are highlighted in a companion model study, “C&D Plans and Policies,” in this series.

If mixed C&D processing facilities are not available in a given area, communities could contact businesses involved with C&D debris and explore with them what incentives and support might be needed to help them develop new facilities in their area.

Alternatively, many of the companies listed in this model study are interested in expanding their activities. Communities could issue a request for proposals for the service of mixed C&D processing. An RFP would be particularly appropriate if a community had land available that could be used by a private contractor on a leased basis to provide these services in the area (either under contract to the community, or through independent third-party transactions).

An RFP could be enhanced if connected with a funding system (for example, a deposit system, as described in the C&D Plans and Policies model study) that provided some funding or incentives for mixed C&D processing in that community.

Disaster Debris Plans

The Northridge earthquake is a good example of how a local government disaster debris plan could be creatively used to foster the development of new recycling services. During the 1994 Northridge earthquake, the City of Los Angeles made arrangements with a number of C&D processors to handle the debris generated from that earthquake. The city arranged with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to reimburse the city’s C&D contractors for their processing of this debris. Literally millions of dollars were spent on the cleanup of that earthquake. Much of that money was invested in developing the mixed C&D recycling systems that are clustered around Sun Valley, California.

The CIWMB has a model disaster debris management plan available on its Web site. Communities could adopt disaster debris management plans that have made arrangements in the case of natural disasters (including floods, earthquakes, fires) to reuse, recycle, and/or compost the C&D debris from those events. In the planning process, communities could identify the facilities available, contact those facilities to make contingency plans for different types of disasters, and clear in advance those plans with FEMA and other regulatory agencies. Then, when a disaster strikes, communities can maximize reuse, recycling, and composting and build new infrastructure in the community.

Tips for Replication

• Identify services available from local C&D haulers and processors. Use the CIWMB Web site to identify recyclers in your area. Contact other neighboring cities and counties to obtain directories and guides to C&D recycling. If there are no mixed C&D processors in your area, contact those listed in this model study to see if they can offer services in your area (see contacts).
• Consider helping existing C&D recyclers in your area to expand their own capabilities to process mixed C&D. Consider commitments of tonnages from city projects or direct financial assistance (grants or loans) to encourage their investment.
• Incorporate mixed C&D processing into disaster debris planning for your area.

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Last updated: October 26, 2007