2011 C&D Recycling Forum: Rising and Falling

The construction of a baseball stadium and the demolition of a sizable copper smelting facility had one thing in common: close attention to recycling.

Attendees of the C&D Recycling Forum, held in Baltimore in late September, heard from speakers providing details on the construction of Nationals Park in Washington, D.C., and the demolition of the former Asarco copper smelter in El Paso, Texas.

Elizabeth Bruno of Nova Waste and Potomac Recycling, Dumfries, Va., told attendees that the builders of Nationals Park, who were seeking LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification, achieved an 82 percent materials recycling rate as part of that process.

Nova Waste helped recycle both demolition materials from buildings that were taken down to make room for the stadium as well as recycling scrap materials on the construction site.

The project yielded some 10,000 tons of bricks; 2,300 tons of wood; 1,760 tons of metal; more than 600 tons of cardboard; and more than 200 tons of concrete

Nova Waste shared a LEED spreadsheet with contractors and others involved. “They could see the progress of what was being recycled, even viewing an update after each haul if they wanted to,” said Bruno.

Material was hauled to the Nova Waste/Potomac Recycling 39-acre landfill complex, where a Powerscreen 2400 sort line and other equipment was used to separate and process the recyclable materials.

Mike Casbon, who is based in Indiana with multi-national contractor ERM Inc., has spent much of the past 10 months in El Paso, Texas, helping oversee the demolition of a copper smelting facility that is spread out over 200 acres.

ERM hired Brandenburg Industrial Service Co., Chicago, as its demolition subcontractor for the project. Malcolm Pirnie, Highlands Ranch, Colo., was the lead remediation contractor.

Metals were smelted at the site, adjacent to the border with Mexico, from 1887 until Asarco closed the facility in 2005. In part because owners prior to Asarco smelted lead on the site, decontamination has been a vital part of the demolition and recycling process, said Casbon.

While the decontamination process has been costly, the variety and volume of metals harvested has yielded generous returns. That harvest has included some 3,500 tons of copper; 1.5 million pounds of lead; 44,000 ounces of silver; and 1,200 ounces of gold.

Much of this material has been harvested and sold during a time of record-high metals prices, benefiting the trust entity that now owns the land.

In addition to recycling metal for an eager scrap market, Casbon indicated that the project has also entailed recycling sulfuric acid, Douglas fir timber and some salvageable equipment.

Casbon said the efforts of ERM, Brandenburg and others working on the project have provided a tremendous financial success for the Asarco site land trust. Rather than spending down the trust’s $52 million cash reserves for the project, work done thus far has provided an additional $25 million to the trust’s value.

The 2011 C&D Recycling Forum was Sept. 25-27 at the Turf Valley Resort and Conference Center in Ellicott City, Md.