"Innovations" Case Studies: Mixed C&D Processors

Program Characteristics

• Overview
• Mixed C&D Processors and Haulers

Overview

There are hundreds of independent companies that are currently able to provide reuse, recycling, and composting services for materials recovered from construction and demolition projects. The California Integrated Waste Management Board (CIWMB) has a list of many of these facilities posted on their Web site.  Approximately 400 C&D recyclers are listed, which users can search by county and by types of materials. The types of materials listed are general, appliances, asphalt, brick, concrete, drywall, flooring, glass, metal, paint, plastic, wood, other, and all types.

Many communities have also prepared C&D recycling guides to provide to residents, contractors, and developers when they are seeking construction or demolition permits from the community. Some good examples of these guides are the Los Angeles and Alameda County C&D recycling guides (For More Information). As an indication of the scope and diversity of C&D recyclers, Alameda County includes information on reuse, recycling, or composting the following C&D materials:

In the City of Los Angeles, the Bureau of Sanitation, Solid Resources Citywide Recycling Division (SRCRD) provides the following guides to recycle C&D materials:

• Construction & Demolition Waste Recycling Guide
• Wood You Recycle?

These free guides provide recycling tips and a list of recycling companies for the various materials. Information can also be obtained online from www.cityofla.org/SAN/services/cdrecycl.htm. The City of Los Angeles generously offers its guide to other communities to reprint or use as the basis for developing their own local guides.

Local government public works, building department, and/or planning staffs are in a position to help educate residents, contractors, and developers about service options through the distribution of such guides and literature at their permit counters and service desks.

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Mixed C&D Processors and Haulers

The new C&D recycling facilities in California are able to reuse, recycle, and/or compost materials from mixed loads of C&D debris. These service providers vary in their recycling processes, capacity, diversion rates, reporting systems, specifications, and collection services. However, they all offer the opportunity for local governments to consider a range of new policies and programs that could result in much greater recycling of C&D debris than in the past (see companion model study, “C&D Plans and Policies, ” CIWMB Publication #310-01-014).

In some communities, it may be feasible now to require all C&D debris be processed before being landfilled. This requirement could apply to a franchised hauler only (as in Hawthorne, Calif.), or it could be associated with a landfill ban or source-separation requirement.

In a comprehensive C&D plan adopted October 1, 1999, in Hawthorne, the city required their franchise hauler to reuse, recycle, or compost all C&D materials to the maximum extent possible. No greater than 10 percent of C&D materials collected under the exclusive franchise is allowed to be taken directly to a landfill by the franchised hauler for disposal or use as alternative daily cover in a landfill. Instead, to the fullest extent possible, all C&D materials collected under the exclusive franchise are required to be processed to recover all reusable, recyclable, and compostable materials.

The Hawthorne C&D plan stipulated, “In no event should less than 90% of C&D materials be taken to a facility for preprocessing for reuse, recycling or composting. Processing residue may be used as ADC [alternative daily cover], and as a last resort, landfilled.” In addition, the Hawthorne C&D plan set a short-term goal of achieving 50 percent diversion for all C&D materials for the franchised hauler.

All this was possible because Hawthorne determined that it would be cost-effective for their franchised hauler to take 90 percent of their C&D debris to either source-separated or mixed C&D processors when compared to other transfer station or landfill options. This was only possible because of the availability of mixed C&D processors in the area.

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Known processors of mixed C&D materials in California

1. Bradley Landfill and Recycling Center, Sun Valley.

2. Community Recycling and Resource Recovery Transfer Station, Sun Valley.

3. Looney Bins, Sun Valley.

4. Zanker Road Landfill, San Jose.

5. Monterey Regional Waste Management District, Marina.

• Materials recovered: concrete and asphalt ground periodically for road base; wood ground for soil amendments; metal trucked off-site for sale; new sheetrock-ground for use with compost; cardboard-sold to local franchised hauler; inert fine material used for daily cover at landfill.
• Equipment used: wood grinder; concrete and asphalt crusher (brought in when the pile reaches 50,000 tons to make crushed miscellaneous base [CMB]); screen for fines.
• C&D recovery rate: 60 percent for C&D that goes to the materials recovery facility (MRF), of which 40 percent is fine material for landfill use. The MRF is adjacent to the landfill, and it processes 300 tons per day.

6. Sunnyvale Materials Recovery and Transfer Station.

• Materials recovered/end use: unpainted wood-ground for soil amendments; concrete and asphalt-sent to Raisch Products for grinding into CMB; metals-loosely placed into rolloff bins for sale; cardboard-loosely placed into rolloffs for baling and sale off site; experimenting with sheetrock processing and uses.
• Equipment used: chipper for wood and yard waste.
• Processing methods: floor sorting; forklifts; front-end loaders.
• C&D recovery rate: 55 percent in 1999; receives 80 tons per day of C&D material; recovery of C&D constitutes about 20 percent of all materials (including municipal) received at site. Raisch Products has a grinding facility adjacent to the site that takes care of all concrete and asphalt received.

7. Western Placer Waste Management Authority.

• Materials recovered/end use: unpainted and some painted wood-ground up for local co-generation plant; concrete and asphalt-sent to landfill for winter decking and haul roads; light metals baled and heavy metals placed loosely into rolloffs for sale off site.
• Equipment used: front-end loaders.
• Recovery methods: hand-sorting from floor and loaders pull materials from mixed C&D loads. Receives about 40 tons per day of C&D material.

8. Florin-Perkins Transfer Station, Sacramento.

• Materials recovered/end use: concrete ground into road base; drywall screened and sold for farming applications; wood-run through horizontal grinder and sold for mulch or co-generation.
• Equipment used: concrete crusher; horizontal grinder; sorting line.
• Processing method: recyclables pulled from mixed loads.

9. Atlas Disposal, Sacramento.

• Materials recovered: metal placed loosely into 40-cubic-yard bins or onto high sides for sale off site; wood ground on site with horizontal grinder for sale as soil amendment; cardboard loosely placed into bins for sale off site.
• Equipment used: front-end loaders and excavators with grapplers.
• Processing methods: hand labor pulls from mixed loads; excavator with grappler.
• Recovery rate: 74 percent of C&D waste stream is recovered; facility only accepts C&D material.

10. L&D Landfill, Sacramento.

• Materials recovered/end use: Cardboard; green waste; scrap metal; wood; concrete and asphalt are used on site for winter decking.
• Equipment used: front-end loader.
• Processing methods: hand labor pulls from mixed loads. Materials are loaded into bins and shipped off site for processing.
• C&D recovery rate: 20 percent.

11. NorCAL, Tunnel Avenue, San Francisco.

• Materials recovered/end use: wood, metal, corrugated cardboard, asphalt, concrete, brick, clean fill, and dirt.
• Equipment used: shaker screen, incline conveyor.
• Processing method: positive sorting via sort stations with rolloffs underneath.
• C&D recovery rate: 80 percent recovery for the materials that go over the line. About 50 percent of loads go through the line. Some clean loads go straight to markets. Line does not have capacity for all C&D that could be sorted. Currently obtaining permits to run sort line for more hours to increase processing capacity.

12. Other mixed C&D processing facilities include:

• Davis Street Transfer Station, San Leandro
• Santa Barbara County Transfer Station
• Morberg Industries, Santa Barbara
• Paramount Resource Recovery
• Consolidated

Mixed C&D processors provide an important alternative to disposing C&D debris in landfills. The material can be processed and recycled even if the C&D debris is mixed together at the site and transported in mixed loads. Mixed C&D processors are interested in working with other cities to develop customized C&D recycling plans and subcontract with local haulers. Most of them offer negotiated rates for major accounts.

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Last updated: December 28, 2007