"Innovations" Case Studies: Commercial Innovations and Challenges

Program Characteristics

• Characterizing the ICI Waste Streams
• ICI Material Markets

Characterizing the ICI Waste Streams

ICI waste streams fit into the following categories:

Single Unit Industrial (Manufacturing)

These sites will be large sources of waste with an easily traceable point source. Wastes generated at such sites generally fall into the following categories:

1. Process wastes. These can be materials such as plastics, metals, paper, etc., or process chemicals. If the wastes are uncontaminated, they fall into the category of preconsumer or prompt industrial. These wastes can either be returned to the production cycle or can be readily marketed as recyclable material. The process can contaminate the end waste, making reuse or recycling less possible and more costly.
2. Packaging. This includes both incoming materials and outgoing product. Cardboard and plastics (both rigid and film) will be most common with lesser amounts of glass, cloth, and other materials.
3. Office waste. This waste will be primarily white and color ledger grades, now commonly known as “office pack” to wastepaper markets. Contamination occurs with unacceptable paper (for example, carbons, blueprint) and non-paper (for example, food waste, pencil stubs, etc.).
4. Food and associated materials. Industrial plants often contain food service for their employees or designated dining areas and food and drink vending machine locations. These will be point sources of food and food serving and packaging wastes.

Independent and Chain Unit Commercial Wholesale

These sites are commonly distribution warehouses. Although they may be very large, waste generated may be relatively low if the operation is basically a transfer operation and/or if reusable shipping containers are used.

• Packaging. This type of waste may increase with a repackaging operation. (See no. 2 above for types.) Department store distribution centers may also generate items such as metal and plastic hangers.
• Damaged packages. Packages in warehouses will occasionally be damaged by water, collision with material handling equipment, collapse of storage columns, etc. These can sometimes be sold as distressed merchandise, or they can be discarded.
• Office and food waste. These are minimal relative to the size of the facility.
• Green landscaping waste.

Independent and Chain Unit Commercial Retail and Service

This category represents a very wide range of activities and sizes of operation, such as a large department store or chain store like Target or Home Depot. These can be treated as single point sources for planning purposes. “Mom-and-pop stores” and medium-sized businesses are also included in this category. Smaller operations can be aggregated by prior design (for example, shopping mall, office building, business park) or by post planning (for example, downtown office corridor).

• Packaging. All of these businesses will generate some form of packaging waste as described above.
• Process waste. Type of waste will be site-specific depending on type of business.
• Office waste. This will be more relevant in office-type businesses, but office waste will exist to some degree in nearly all business locations.
• Green landscaping waste where applicable.

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Construction, Renovation, and Demolition (C&D)

This waste category is very significant in planning waste reduction but differs from the other categories in important ways. C&D recycling is occasionally present at all the other category sites as well. Because of its unique nature, C&D recycling will be characterized here regardless of where it takes place. Residential sites will also be included, since C&D recycling is subsumed under ICI wastes handling.

1. Construction waste. New construction waste is commonly comprised of:

1. Wood. This is substantial in single and some multifamily residential construction. Waste can approach 30 to 35 percent of input in the worst cases.
2. Gypsum wallboard. This, too, has a high waste percentage, often reaching 15 to 25 percent of input.
3. Wire and metal trim waste.
4. Insulation trim waste (fiberglass or plastic).
5. Non-wood siding and roofing waste. Commonly plastic or cement composite.
6. Packaging. Can be significant when appliances are delivered and installed.
7. Miscellaneous. Varies with specialty design elements.
8. Green landscaping.

2. Demolition. This will vary with the age and type of the structure to be demolished. Depending upon the age, there may be contamination to some degree by asbestos, lead paint, and other toxic and hazardous material. C&D recycling is most likely to produce the following materials:

1. Concrete, with or without rebar.
2. Brick, stone, stucco, and plaster.
3. Heavy steel, cast iron, galvanized steel, and iron pipe.
4. Copper pipe and insulated wire.
5. Wood, painted and unpainted.
6. Ceramic fixtures and tiles.
7. Various metal lighting and electrical fixtures.
8. Carpet, non-ceramic tiles, and linoleum.
9. Gypsum wallboard, clean, painted, or papered.
10. Glass.
11. Plastic siding, window sashes, and miscellaneous products.
12. Green landscaping.

3. Renovation. This activity is usually a combination of demolition and construction. Therefore, materials generated will not differ from the above.

Institutional

This includes a wide range of public and public-type institutions such as government office buildings, schools, public hospitals, clinics, penal institutions, libraries, parks, zoos, and museums.

1. Office waste (as described above).
2. Packaging (as described above).
3. Food and food packaging (as described above).
4. Plastic products. Significant in hospitals, clinics, and prisons.
5. Glass products. Significant in hospitals and clinics.
6. Green waste from landscaping.
7. Green waste and manures from parks and zoos.

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ICI Material Markets

ICI waste reduction planning must include understanding and awareness of local market conditions, especially as it relates to materials that cannot be reduced or reused on site. In this regard, most California communities are fortunate in having significant domestic and export market options, particularly to the Pacific Rim and Latin America. Follows is a summary of ICI material markets:

Paper

Price may vary dramatically over time (usually in five-year cycles). However, domestic demand from mills in California and the Pacific northwest keeps the flow of recyclable paper grades on a steady course. Demand in foreign markets such as Mexico, the Pacific Rim, and increasingly in other parts of Latin America also contributes to a healthy market.

New grades such as office pack and curbside mix reflect the expansion of the marketplace. Research and development activity in the paper industry in recent years has resulted in an increasing capability to deal with paper as it is commonly collected.

Other Uses

Feedstock for cellulose insulation, animal bedding, and mulches continues to sustain modest niche markets. Growing interest in green building could have a significant upward impact on the cellulose insulation market.

Metals

These materials also boast strong domestic and export markets. Price varies over time, but movement remains generally stable. Domestic ferrous scrap demand is buoyed by a number of electric arc mini-mills in Oregon, Arizona, and Nevada. These mills can use 100 percent scrap charges. Export markets are also stable over time even when there are periodic disruptions. Non-ferrous metals such as copper and aluminum are also strong over time, with normal price swings.

Plastics

Prompt industrial (preconsumer) batches of most types and grades are readily marketable, usually to domestic users. Postconsumer grades vary widely in their acceptability to either domestic or export markets, but pricing often is too low to be cost-effective. The California refund value (CRV) program primarily sustains PET bottle-grade plastic in both domestic and export markets. China is the primary buyer of U.S.-generated PET plastic.

Manufacturers of plastic lumber are creating an increasing demand for feedstock, which is helping to sustain the high-density polyethylene (HDPE) bottle market. The low and linear low-density polyethylene (LDPE) films markets, to a lesser extent, also contribute some material for manufacturing these products. In general, the plastics recycling industry is facing substantial barriers, except for an erratic and uncertain China market.

Wood and Green Waste

• Wood-especially old growth and wood free from contamination-has market value as dimensional lumber. Wood that is clean, unpainted, and without chemical preservatives has use as a mulch or as an alternative fuel.
• Can Fibre, a Canadian division of Kafus Industries, has recently opened a medium-density fiberboard manufacturing facility in Riverside, Calif. It will use 100 percent wood waste as feedstock.
• Composted green waste is both sold and given to citizens and/or public agencies without charge. Uncomposted green waste is used in some communities as alternative daily cover in landfills.

Glass

The presence of glass bottle manufacturing and fiberglass insulation manufacturing in California results in stable, if not lucrative, domestic markets. The export market is minimal but could develop over time.

Gypsum Wallboard

Selected manufacturers of wallboard provide a limited take-back market if the board is from new installation trim. No old, painted, or papered board is allowed. The material is ground and sold as an agricultural soil supplement. Some companies have developed processes for recycling this material, but they do not yet exist in California.

Concrete, Stone, Brick, Asphalt, Ceramics

Strong domestic outlets exist for converting concrete and other crushable material to aggregates of different sizes. These processes carry a lower tip fee than landfilling. Asphalt can be commonly recycled into the new pavement structure as it is taken up and reapplied. Brick is either salvageable as whole brick or crushable into aggregate.

Miscellaneous

Modest markets are present in different parts of the state for used carpet, carpet underlayment, and tires.

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Last updated: October 26, 2007