If it’s true that there is no substitute for experience, it is easy to see why the National Demolition Association’s (NDA’s) Live Demolition event has continued to gain popularity among contractors. The Live Demolition, which took place at Demolition Austin Feb. 23 as part of the association’s annual conference, has grown from 15 participating exhibitors demonstrating 18 pieces of equipment in 2018 to 20 exhibitors demonstrating 30 pieces of equipment in 2020. Along the way, it has become a must-attend event for contractors interested in testing and buying some of the industry’s latest tools and equipment.

Unlike at most conferences, the Live Demolition offers contractors a chance to see, touch and operate excavators, pulverizers, grapples, shears and other pieces of equipment in real world applications. By being able to test and compare equipment side by side, contractors can make more informed decisions while also having a chance to connect with product specialists able to answer their specific questions on various pieces of equipment.

Setting the stage

The NDA’s selection of Austin for its annual show this year set the stage for a return to Texas Disposal Systems’ (TDS’) Exotic Game Ranch in nearby Buda, Texas. The 1,175-acre site, which hosts an exotic animal refuge, landfill and recycling facilities, played host to the first Live Demolition event two years ago.

Thanks to its on-site metals and concrete recycling facilities, as well as NDA’s Convention Committee’s familiarity with the site, a return to the original location just made sense, says former NDA convention committee chair Tim Ramon, who helped organize this year’s session.

“I was involved in 2018 with the Live Demolition when we first organized this with TDS,” Ramon says. “TDS and their principals had a good idea of what we were expecting out of the event since we did this previously. We had a really good idea of what TDS was capable of and what their facilities offered in terms of amenities and benefits, so it was a lot easier working together this year.”

One variable that created some uncertainties centered around the concrete and metal scrap that TDS would be able to provide for processing at the event. TDS agreed to set aside incoming metal and concrete prior to the Live Demolition rather than recycle it themselves outright. While TDS was able to set aside the requisite 500 to 600 tons of steel needed for equipment to shear at the event, show organizers realized there was hardly any concrete when they arrived on-site a couple days before the show.

With the Live Demolition just days away, NDA’s committee members sprung into action, bringing in roughly 3,000 cubic yards of unprocessed, oversized concrete in just a matter of hours.

“Collaboratively and collectively, we were able to source that concrete from four different locations. It’s not something you just go to Home Depot and pick up,” Ramon says.

“We showed up Thursday morning [of the show] and we quickly came to the realization that we didn’t have any concrete, and we had concrete on the ground close of business Friday and ready for the Live Demolition event Saturday morning. That is a testament to [the NDA team] for not only making the necessary calls to get the material, but persuading their contacts to actually bring us what we needed in such a small window,” Scott Laird, chairperson of NDA’s Convention Committee, says.

In addition to the last-minute sourcing of concrete, NDA had to contend with the challenge of physically getting the equipment set up in the days leading up to the event. With the majority of the setup taking place in the two days prior to the Live Demolition, exceptional coordination was needed to direct the rush of incoming machinery.

“This event grew over 25 percent just from the previous year in terms of equipment. We had over 30 pieces of heavy equipment, which means 30 lowboy trailers and tractor trailer rigs coming into the site and offloading inside of a two-day period—most of them coming in within a day of each other. The site looked like a beehive with bees buzzing in all sorts of different directions, trucks coming in, materials getting dumped, so it was quite chaotic,” Ramon says.

Going off without a hitch

Despite some of the challenges, NDA’s committee members and volunteers managed to have everything in place by the time the event rolled around for the program’s 554 attendees.

The vendors, made up of the who’s who of demolition equipment manufacturers, included Arden Equipment, Brokk Inc., Caterpillar Inc., Company Wrench, Ecovolve, Epiroc, Genesis Attachments, Husqvarna Construction Products, Kobelco Construction Machinery USA, Komatsu America Corp., LaBounty, Liebherr, Link-Belt Excavators, LiuGong, Okada America Inc., OilQuick USA/ShearCore, Sennebogen LLC, Steelwrist Inc., and Volvo Construction Equipment.

Although like in years’ past, vendors were separated by type of equipment, this year’s show allowed more flexibility in terms of how equipment was run. At previous shows, operators had a specific equipment runtime allotted that they couldn’t deviate from. At Demolition Austin, attendees were given leeway to run machines for as long, or as little, as they wanted.

“In past years, we put a lot of effort in structuring when and how the attendees would operate the equipment or interact with the vendor. And this year, we changed it around,” Ramon says. “Our vendors are very competent and very knowledgeable, so we allowed each station and each vendor to regulate the time and the way that the attendee interacted with, and operated, that piece of equipment—that helped out a lot. It gave the event a lot more of a free-flowing feel.”

In addition to allowing more freedom for contractors to operate equipment how they wanted, this year’s Live Demolition event incorporated on-site training for interested parties. Through NDA’s Demolition Superintendent Bootcamp, professionals were able to follow up a day of classroom instruction with a day of job site management training focused on planning, communication, people management, safety and job wrap-up best practices.

With a range of equipment available to try, on-site training and the chance to engage with industry peers all in one centralized location, NDA hopes that the association can continue to make the Live Demolition a valuable event for attendees of the association’s future conventions.

“[NDA’s convention committee] wanted to make these an event where someone wouldn’t just come out for an hour or two to run a piece of equipment, we wanted to make them an event where people could come out and make a day of it,” Laird says. “I think we did that. I saw a lot of people who showed up at 9 a.m. who were still there at 2 or 3 p.m., so I think our goal moving forward is to continue to push this event to make it where people want to stay, test out equipment, talk to vendors and enjoy the whole day.”

Demolition New Orleans is scheduled for March 4-7, 2021, and the NDA says it is working to finalize plans for a Live Demolition event that is bigger and more interactive than ever before.

In February 2019, the National Science Board authorized the National Science Foundation (NSF) to begin a comprehensive rebuilding of McMurdo Station in Antarctica. Located in the Ross Sea, McMurdo is the U.S. Antarctic Program’s (USAP) logistics hub and the largest of the three stations the nation operates on the continent.

The station is being rebuilt under the Antarctic Infrastructure and Modernization for Science (AIMS) project, which will be one of the first major infrastructure modernization projects at McMurdo Station since its establishment in 1956. Over the next 10 years, the project will help update the station to make it energy and operationally efficient.

According to the Antarctic Sun, the continent’s NSF-funded newspaper, the $355 million project will include 370,000 square feet of new construction and plans to consolidate the research station’s roughly 100 buildings into just six primary structures.

“A world-class science program is the primary expression of the nation’s geopolitical presence in Antarctica and helps to ensure the U.S. keeps a leading role in Antarctic Treaty System deliberations,” said Kelly Falkner, director of NSF’s Office of Polar Programs in a statement announcing the project. “Through AIMS, this historic site for scientific research will gain the capabilities that will allow it to continue in its role as a leading hub for scientific endeavors.”

PREPARING THE EQUIPMENT

Leidos, Reston, Virginia, a defense, aviation, information technology and biomedical research company, was chosen as the prime contractor for the AIMS project. Responsible for all “on the ice” operations that help make research possible, Leidos works for the NSF to introduce cost-effective infrastructure for managing work stations, medical facilities and facility communications.

With recorded temperature extremes as low as minus 40 degrees Fahrenheit, Leidos acquired equipment retrofitted for extreme cold from Metso, Tampere, Finland, to make the project possible. The seller was Aurora, Colorado-based Wagner Equipment Co.

“After a comparison of several equipment manufacturers, Metso and Wagner offered a freeze-proofed crushing solution with the best value,” says David DesAutels, Leidos’ Antarctic support contract fleet analyst, in a Metso release. “The equipment, specifically designed for cold conditions, will be maintained by personnel with close proximity in New Zealand.”

Leidos procured a Lokotrack LT106 jaw crusher, LT200HP cone crusher and ST3.8 mobile screen for the job, all of which will be used for crushing ground materials for the new buildings.

According to Richard Sack, a crushing and screening machine sales representative at Wagner Equipment, Metso made variety of changes to the equipment to stand up to the rigors of the job, including installing a central junction box to plug into external generators when not in use to help heat fluids. The company also insulated all hoses, installed arctic belting and modified units to operate on Jet A-1 aviation fuel since it is suitable for cold conditions and the only fuel source available at the site.

“Every part [of the equipment] sensitive to cold has been fitted with immersion heaters and extra insulation. The selected oils and other fluids are suitable for the Antarctic climate, and the specially manufactured conveyor belts run even in extremely cold weather,” Marko Salonen, project manager at Metso’s Aggregates Equipment business area, says in a release.

ARRIVING AT THE SITE

Weather conditions in Antarctica can pose substantial logistical challenges for a construction project the scope of McMurdo Station. Another substantial challenge is with material and equipment availability since supplies only arrive once a year; thus, materials that are needed must be ordered a year in advance so they can be delivered on the annual supply ship, which departs in October.

When considering the lead time between being awarded the contract and delivering the equipment, Metso made sure Leidos had what it needed to work on the project amid unforeseen challenges, including shipping additional wear parts and a recommended spare parts list with data to support maintenance.

“[Metso] prepared the maintenance and spare parts service in such a way that everything conceivable can be anticipated and serviced independently on-site,” says Sack. According to Salonen, even the packaging materials were chosen in a way that ensured nothing unnecessary would be transported to the unique Antarctic environment to minimize waste.

The crushing plants began their long journey in Finland, where the equipment was then shipped to Germany. From there, it was taken to Port Hueneme, California, where it travelled onward to Antarctica via Christchurch, New Zealand.

The final leg of the journey was completed by two vessels carrying a total of 35 earthwork machines. These ships were hardened to withstand the icy waters of the region, but were accompanied by a U.S. Coast Guard icebreaker to ensure safe delivery and return.

The globe-trotting journey finally came to an end earlier this year when McMurdo took receipt of the equipment in February.

THE PROJECT

Under the AIMS project, Leidos is required to produce roughly 150,000 cubic yards of engineered fill to support construction and expansion projects throughout the base, such as for docks, runways, building foundations and roadways.

The first two buildings slated for construction are the Vehicle Equipment Operations Center (VEOC), which will serve as the main maintenance and repair facility for McMurdo’s varied fleet of vehicles, and a new 285-bed lodging facility.

The largest component of the project is the Core Facility, a multi-operational facility that will house station management and administration, field communications, food service and dining, and food warehousing functions. Once that is completed, construction will begin on the Emergency Operations Center, which will house the fire department, medical facilities and recreational space.

In overseeing the start of the AIMS project, Leidos operated the Metso machines for two months before ceasing operations. Due to the extreme conditions of Antarctica, the equipment can only be used during the Southern Hemisphere summer, which lasts from October to April.

With a couple months of operations completed, Leidos reports they have been pleased with the results.

“So far, Metso’s equipment is getting the job done beyond our expectations,” says DesAutels.

Before stopping for the winter, Leidos was feeding basalt of unknown hardness less than 24 inches into the LT106 jaw crusher for primary reduction to less than 6 inches, with the LT200HP cone crusher providing final reduction to less than 2 inches, with a specific particle size distribution encompassing 11 different gradations. The hard basalt was generated from an area near the station.

To meet the demands of the AIMS project as safely, timely and efficiently as possible, the equipment provided is designed to be most optimal by feeding materials into the Lokotrack LT106 jaw crusher and then running this into the Lokotrack ST3.8 mobile screen to pull off the material already meeting the specification.

The oversize material is then sent into the LT200 cone plant to crush the material down to the desired size. According to Metso, this is a closed-circuit configuration that will allow for consistent high production requirements given the extreme conditions.

“We aim to work 16 hours a day and produce 250 tons of 63 mm crushed stone per hour,” says Jeffrey Huffman, Leidos Antarctic support contract operations manager. “We also want to include some degree of fines to gain more compact material for the buildings’ foundations.”

Metso’s equipment will be used for three years, with work on the project expected to be completed in 2026. When finished, the new McMurdo station will save the National Science Foundation millions of dollars in operations and maintenance costs while also improving the living and working conditions for staff, says Senior Advisor for the NSF’s Office of Polar Programs Scot Arnold in a USNI News article.

“Project success will be defined by meeting production goals without undue environmental impacts or risk to personnel,” explained DesAutels. “To date, the equipment has served us well in both those critical elements.”

The author is the assistant editor of Construction & Demolition Recycling and can be reached at hrischar@gie.net.

Before Dan Guimont founded Mill Creek, Washington-based DTG Recycle (DTG), he was the owner and operator of an independent hauling company outside Seattle. One day when looking for a place to dump a truckload filled with residential construction site debris, Guimont pulled up to a local transfer station. As the story goes, the attendant was so rude that Guimont backed his truck off the scale and left out of principle.

While trying to think of where else he could offload the debris, he came to the realization that most of the load was recyclable and could be sold rather than having to pay for it to be landfilled. Armed with a truck and an idea, Guimont decided to start his own C&D recycling business. Rather than build the business from scratch, Guimont contacted Tom Vaughn, who ran his own C&D recycling operation in town, to see if he would be interested in selling his business.

According to Vaughn, the proposition came at an unexpected time.

“I … was riding down the side of a volcano in Hawaii on vacation when I received a call from Dan. I thought to myself, ‘This might be interesting,’ so I pulled over to take the call. He asked if I might be interested in selling my company. I agreed to meet him the next week and we ended up getting the deal done shortly thereafter.”

After running the business solo for the first year and a half, Guimont reached out to Vaughn once again to see if he would be interested in joining the team as CEO. Twenty years later, the pair has helped grow DTG into the largest C&D recycler in the Pacific Northwest.

Inside the business

Today, DTG owns and operates eight material recovery facilities, one C&D debris landfill and associated quarry, one petroleum-contaminated soil treatment facility, and a large transportation division with nearly 1,500 containers and almost 100 trucks.

The company, which employs a staff of 250, specializes in handling C&D material, industrial and manufacturing waste, petroleum-contaminated soil, mattresses, carpet and tires. DTG also has a significant certified destruction business unit. Together, the company receives and processes several thousand tons per day.

Vaughn says the company’s mindset has always been focused on finding innovative ways to divert materials from landfill as a way to “control its destiny.”

“Our philosophy has always been to invest in equipment and processes that are highly flexible so we can rapidly react to evolving end market demands,” Vaughn says. “Also, we have a highly engaged front-line workforce that generates innovative ideas relative to sorting and re-use of recovered commodities. We are continuously involved in research into both separation technologies and end market development. In addition to our continuous internal research and development efforts, we are working with local universities on a number of exciting end product development initiatives.”

Being able to focus on end market development has served the company well in recent years. Even after China stopped accepting many imported recyclables in 2018, the company was well-positioned to serve domestic customers.

“DTG sent recovered commodities to domestic destinations exclusively even before offshore end markets began to close up,” Vaughn says. “The effective closure of China and other countries as viable end markets further galvanized our philosophy to try to control our own destiny whenever possible. We have done this in a number of ways, such as working hard to influence allotment and price in the case of some of our alternative fuels. For other commodities, we have spent a lot of energy developing new products that we can sell directly to the end user and, therefore, eliminate any middlemen control. We have a manufacturer’s mindset of generating a product with consistent specifications and in reliable volumes.”

Vaughn says that an example of this “manufacturer’s mindset” can be seen in how the company has worked to process incoming drywall to make a sellable gypsum-based product. To help better manage its incoming drywall, DTG built a custom drywall grinding machine specifically to produce a high-quality gypsum fertilizer for use in agriculture. He says this investment also allowed DTG to become the largest gypsum recycler in the Pacific Northwest capable of producing over 100 tons per day of gypsum fertilizer from new construction drywall debris.

Besides the fertilizer the company currently produces, Vaughn says the company is also developing other innovative gypsum-based agricultural and building products that will be brought to market in 2020.

Another example of the company’s manufacturer’s mindset is how the company has worked to find uses for plastics. Vaughn says DTG recently launched a clothing brand called Planet Obsessed to help divert usable plastics from landfill. The garments feature upcycled cotton and incorporate polyethylene terephthalate (PET) into the fabric. According to the company, each hoodie Planet Obsessed makes contains the equivalent of eight water bottles worth of plastic.

“Our customers on the recycling end have greeted this product with great enthusiasm,” he says “They are excited to see the real-life demonstration of a circular economy. For DTG, it is another example of controlling the commodity from collection through processing and, ultimately, to incorporation into an end product that can be sold to the end user.”

For the company’s industrial customers, Vaughn says DTG has worked to bridge the gap between producer and consumers of alternative raw materials.

Vaughn says DTG recently facilitated the transfer of several thousand tons of non-hazardous shotblast sand from a painting customer to a manufacturer that was incorporating the sand into an industrial product. Prior to DTG’s involvement, this material had been going to the landfill. However, after DTG got involved, materials were able to be salvaged.

“Both of our customers saved money, and DTG provided the required transportation services so it was beneficial for everyone involved,” Vaughn says. “DTG’s innovation, quality control and logistics capabilities facilitated the ‘closed loop’ nature of the relationship, ensuring an outlet for the waste generator and a source of supply for the user.”

For all the high-level decisions DTG’s executives make, Vaughn says that the company’s commitment to improving its offerings starts with its employees.

He notes that the company encourages an open culture of communication at all levels of the organization with a mantra of “early, loud and often,” meaning that when anyone on the staff notices something that can be improved upon, they are encouraged to speak up to correct the issue.

Vaughn says this directive manifests in sorters giving process improvement suggestions to minimize residual waste, managers working to identify more efficient methods to transport waste from the customer to the company’s MRFs, and the sales team reporting back any challenges customers may be having with a byproduct or incoming waste.

By letting every employee know their voice matters, and by creating opportunities for employees to improve their professional skill sets through various professional development programs the company oversees, Vaughn says that DTG is able to create a culture of teamwork where staff buys in to the company’s overall goal of improving how waste and recyclables are managed throughout their life cycle.

“The net result of this high level of communication throughout our organization is that material is processed through our transportation and processing system in a manner that minimizes the amount of material entering landfill,” Vaughn says.

Onward and upward

On Jan. 20, DTG announced the company closed on a $32 million minority growth equity financing deal from Toronto-based Clairvest in partnership with existing shareholders.

Vaughn says that Clairvest’s experience in the waste industry made the partnership a natural one for the two businesses. This experience quickly paid dividends as the investment banking firm was able to offer support when the COVID-19 pandemic hit Washington especially hard in March.

“Their strategy of backing company founders and their appetite for expansion and innovation aligned well with our entrepreneurial and growth mindset,” he says. “We clinked champagne glasses when we executed the deal in late January, but didn’t realize on the other side of the world a storm was brewing that would bring changes that we never could have envisioned. Fast forward a month and half, and we were facing the COVID-19 crisis. Clairvest immediately marshalled an impressive amount of support for DTG in the form of various consultants, analysts and legal support who helped us navigate the crisis—keeping our team members safe, employed and DTG ready to exit the crisis in an even stronger position.”

The Clairvest deal marked yet another significant milestone for the company after an active 2019. Last year alone, DTG acquired the Anderson Rock & Demolition Pits limited purpose landfill in Yakima, Washington; acquired the Recovery 1 MRF in Tacoma, Washington; and opened two new MRFs in the Seattle-Tacoma region of the state.

Commenting on the Clairvest deal, Guimont says that the company is banking on the private equity firm’s expertise to help continue to grow its scope of operations and pave the way for a potential acquisition by a larger operator interested in leveraging the foundation it has built over the last two decades.

“We have such a massive growth opportunity in front of us at DTG right now, there was never any consideration given to selling,” Guimont says. “During 2018 and 2019, we added a number of facilities organically and via acquisition, but did not want to slow down our growth, so we knew additional equity firepower would be required. … Clairvest has been involved in multiple high-growth environmental companies, many of which were sold to strategic buyers. We are confident they will be able to support our aggressive growth targets and help us shape DTG into a strategic acquisition for a larger environmental company.”

The author is the editor of Construction & Demolition Recycling and can be reached at aredling@gie.net.

The weekend of March 13-15 saw the onset of sweeping changes in the United States. Coincidentally or otherwise, shortly after Tom Hanks and a National Basketball Association player were diagnosed with the coronavirus, state governments began or expanded the widespread rollout of personal distancing measures, shelter-in-place orders and other restrictions.

Since that time, an increasing number of U.S. workplaces, including construction and demolition job sites, have been shut down or businesses have been forced to drastically change the way they conduct business.

The sudden downshift in construction, demolition and land clearing activity has yielded a predictable downturn in the amount of wood scrap generated for processing and recycling. The result is that the scrap wood market has entered a state of petrification that recyclers hope will be a brief phenomenon that will not lead to long-lasting financial hardship.

The great slowdown

When state governments began ordering or strongly recommending social distancing and shelter-in-place measures, initial guidance was sometimes lacking as to what activities were considered essential.

Companies that accept and process mixed C&D materials, green waste and land clearing debris thus had to gauge not only whether their facilities had the green light to stay open, but also, how many of their customers were likely to be up and running.

In the second half of March, federal agencies began issuing guidelines and delineating essential versus non-essential classifications, but in most cases, these were interpreted and enforced differently at the state or even county and municipal level.

The combination of restrictions and confusion led to a rapidly dwindling supply for many C&D materials recyclers—if they were able to stay open at all.

A survey conducted in late March and early April by Construction & Demolition Recycling magazine found slightly more than 30 percent of respondents reported having one or more of their facilities either ordered closed by state officials or voluntarily closed as an operational decision.

More than 60 percent of respondents to the same survey said their inbound flow of C&D material had been either severely or moderately affected, and some 32 percent of companies had already laid off some employees, with another 21 percent saying layoffs were being considered.

On the East Coast, Ray Kvedaras of Cooper Recycling in Brooklyn, New York, says that the state “has imposed a ban on non-essential construction, so all demo has stopped, and any allowable construction is at a crawl.” Adds Kvedaras, who was contacted in mid-April, “There is very little wood waste; overall, we’re down 80 percent.”

From the West Coast, Michael Gross of San Jose, California-based Zanker Recycling paints a mid-April picture that is nearly as gloomy. “The state of California has listed us as an essential business, thus we have remained open,” says Gross. “Unfortunately, most construction projects are not considered essential, and accordingly, have stopped. We are experiencing a 60 percent decline in tonnages since March 15. Wood waste has been hit especially hard since it is the primary waste material generated in construction projects.”

In the Midwest, Jason Haus of Shakopee, Minnesota-based Dem-Con reports his company has been less impacted, although he acknowledges the Gopher State’s winter season meant wood scrap volumes were already low heading into April.

“Our operations were deemed by the state as an essential service, so we have continued to operate,” says Haus. “Volumes have decreased slightly, but we have been in the winter road restriction time frame [and], comparably to last year, we are on track.”

Essential, but in need of a rebound

The notion of what industries are essential versus non-essential is destined to play a role not only in the generation and processing of scrap wood, but also in the health of its end markets.

On the generation side, slowdowns in construction and demolition have varied widely from state to state. A window into those differences has been provided by Atlanta-based construction site camera monitoring service, OxBlue.

In early April, the firm released its March summary of construction activity (and slowdowns) based on the aggregated surveillance footage at job sites in all 50 states.

The OxBlue findings indicate Cooper Recycling’s dilemma in New York is indeed based on a severe construction slowdown in the Empire State and several others nearby. The monitoring firm’s analysis for March found construction had been most severely curtailed in three eastern states—Massachusetts, New York and Pennsylvania—along with Michigan and Washington.

California was in a “moderate decline in activity” category, while Minnesota was in a broad swathe of Great Plains and Rocky Mountain states that showed few signs of job site shutdowns. The Deep South and Texas, likewise, had not shut down construction activity to a large degree, according to OxBlue.

As of mid-April, states had begun forming loose coalitions in an effort to reopen workplace and commercial activities, with pacts forming in the Pacific Coast, New York City tri-state and Great Lakes regions.

Recyclers will again be keeping a close eye on how their region or state handles construction and demolition activity. Predicts Gross, “We believe that our industry will bounce back swiftly, since future construction projects are scheduled two to four years out.”

For wood recyclers who create mulch, they also will be on the lookout for where landscaping falls on the spectrum of what is essential.

The Fairfax, Virginia-based National Association of Landscape Professionals (NALP) has been tracking state-by-state guidelines on where its industry stands, according to a late March online article from Lawn & Landscape magazine.

The NALP says the Department of Homeland Security has included landscape services as essential in its revised, “Guidance on the Essential Critical Infrastructure Workforce: Ensuring Community and National Resilience in COVID-19 Response Version 2.0.” According to the NALP, landscaping is listed in the Public Works and Infrastructure Support Services section of DHS’s “Memorandum on Identification of Essential Critical Infrastructure Workers During COVID-19,” and thus the sector is on the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency critical workers list.

Nonetheless, the NALP has maintained a list of all 50 states on its website to provide updates on how state regulators are handling landscaping activities.

In California, “The landscaping industry was not [initially] deemed an essential business and thus shut down most operations,” says Gross. “Mulch markets are at 25 percent of normal for this time of the year. However, we will be ready when the COVID-19 restrictions are lifted.”

Scrap wood’s other large market, as a fuel, has remained essential but continues to face challenges of its own.

Forward fuel strategy

Energy consumption patterns have shifted during the COVID-19 restriction era with considerable declines in personal and leisure transportation and in some industrial sectors.

Wood recyclers say as of mid-April, the markets for their wood fuel products have not been greatly impacted. The trouble they see on the horizon, however, hinges on the likelihood of an overall energy and fuel glut that will have ripple effects.

“There are two reachable wood fuel markets in our area, and they haven’t changed since March,” says Kvedaras. He adds, however, “with the current low energy prices, I can assume they’re struggling.”

Haus sees the same storm clouds on the horizon. “The biggest impact we have is the cost of natural gas. The wood boilers have the ability to switch to natural gas, and the prices have been cheap for that fuel lately; thus, a slower demand in the wood market.”

Oil and natural gas prices began a rapid plunge when COVID-19 emerged in January in the People’s Republic of China, the home of the world’s second-largest economy. Those prices continued a downward trajectory as the virus affected European and then North American economies.

An April 1 write-up by S&P Global Platts pointed to “U.S. onshore prices [for natural gas that] have dipped to multi-year lows.” Adds the commodities information service, “Prices for liquid natural gas, also in oversupply, have been scraping new lows.”

Ideally, sustainability goals and the comfort of many boiler and heating system operators with wood fuel will keep the market viable.

Paper mills remain a loyal consumer of wood-based fuels, with the Washington-based American Forest & Paper Association (AF&PA) finding as of 2015 that “on average, about 66 percent of the energy used at AF&PA member pulp and paper mills is generated from carbon-neutral biomass, which is made from manufacturing residuals that do not end up in finished products, including spent pulping liquors, bark, wood, wood scraps, wood byproducts and process residuals.”

As the traditionally busy late spring and early summer season sets in for wood recyclers, these professionals have plenty to worry about, but potentially, much to be optimistic about. As has become the case in 2020, both the concerns and the hopes of the industry are dependent on the management of COVID-19.

In the ideal scenario, the March and April restrictions give way to a more active economy, producing supplies of scrap wood and stable end markets. How this happens may differ from region to region and state by state, with business owners and managers likely to be tested along the way.

The author is a senior editor with Construction & Demolition Recycling and can be contacted at btaylor@gie.net.