CMRA Tackles Legislative Issues

The mid-year meeting of the Board of Directors of the Construction Materials Recycling Association (CMRA) focused on legislative issues, Web pages, current project of the association, and the association’s financial status.

Held in Copper Mountain, Colo., the meeting was to evaluate the status of the association and the C&D industry and make sure the CMRA was continuing to act as needed to help solve the industry’s issues. One of those issues remains the question of H2S gas from alternative daily cover (ADC) products made from C&D. Greg Wirsen of Green Seal Environmental and director of the CMRA’s New England Chapter provided an update on a pilot project C&D recyclers in the region are proposing to the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) to find ways to best utilize C&D fines. Currently the group is looking for a suitable site for the pilot project, which will involve mixing the fines with contaminated soils.

This work is important because the DEP has put a cumbersome process and expensive financial assurance mechanism on any site that plans on using the fines created by C&D recycling. However, if further markets are not found for this material, then the state’s much ballyhooed disposal ban on C&D will not work because C&D recycling will not be economically feasible.

The status of ADC from C&D in other parts of the country was also discussed. In Iowa, Board Member Rob Hosier, General Companies, reported on a couple of new market outlets that have developed, including one where the material is used as a fill material. Phillip Nappi, Tennessee Waste, described how his state now allows the use of C&D fines in projects on a case-by-case basis.

On the concrete recycling side there were reports on legislation that CMRA is backing that will promote the use of recycled aggregates, especially in the highway environment. Progress has been made on this front, although it remains only small steps that continue to lead to more use of the product.

The board also discussed a recent membership recruitment effort done for the CMRA by a professional recruiting firm. The results were not as well as expected, but it is difficult for any association to gain membership. The board agreed to continue using the firm for more outreach, and that it would become more active in the development of materials for the recruiting firm to use.

But before that effort took place, the CMRA board wants to see the organization’s main Web site, www.cdrecycling.org, updated and improved. The CMRA does have a more information and services available now then it did when the site was established five years ago. A bid was received and accepted to do the work.

A report was heard from Robert Brickner, GBB, Inc., about a survey his firm performed for the CMRA trying to get an estimate on how much C&D is recycled in the United States. After describing to the board the methodology used to determine the numbers, Brickner says that about 155 million tons of concrete and 28 million tons of mixed C&D were recycled in 2005.

The brochure for the 2007 C&D Recycling Awards program will be mailed out shortly so that the winners can be announced at the Annual Meeting Jan. 14-17, 2007, in San Antonio. More information about the event is available at www.cdworldshow.com. The 2008 meeting will be held in conjunction with ConExpo-Con/Agg in March 2008.