C&D recycling facility in Hawaii opens

A new construction and demolition (C&D) debris recycling facility has opened in Kihei, Hawaii, a report by The Maui News says. Hawaii Materials Recycling LLC opened in April and takes in concrete, rock, dirt, asphalt and most other earthen materials.

Pete Sullivan, one of the owners, says in the report the facility crushes and screens the debris and creates road base, pipe bedding, wall rock, topsoil, landscape rock, manmade sand, recycled concrete base, recycled asphalt products and different grades and sizes of fill material and aggregates used in housing projects, road building and commercial and industrial site work. The facility does not take in hazardous waste or substances, lead paint, garbage, metal debris or yard debris.

The facility uses water from the nearby Kihei Wastewater Treatment Plant to suppress dust, and its scale house is powered by a photovoltaic system. Any company certified by the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) green building certification system from the U.S. Green Building Council can get LEED credit by using the facility’s materials.

The only place to legally dispose of nonhazardous C&D debris until the facility opened was at Maui County’s Central Maui Landfill. Another processing facility, Maui Demolition and Construction Landfill in Maalea, closed in 2016 after it reached capacity.

Michael Ratte, the county’s Department of Environmental Management solid waste division chief, says in the report the county received 18,000 tons of C&D debris at the Central Maui Landfill in the partial fiscal year of 2017. For fiscal year 2018, Ratte says in the report he expects the intake to increase to 25,000 tons.

The county has limited hours when it can receive C&D debris and requires paperwork to be done beforehand. Some paperwork processing from the county could take up to seven business days. At the new facility, Sullivan says in the report customers still need to call ahead before making a drop off, but processing paperwork will take about an hour. Sullivan also says in the report that the facility’s intake prices are lower than the county’s.

Hawaii Materials Recycling’s intake prices are $50 per ton for concrete without any reinforcement and $65 per ton for concrete with reinforcement, but rebar must not protrude more than 2 inches.