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| Henrik Lund-Nielsen |
Sending gypsum to a landfill is a waste of resources and a potential hazard, says Henrik Lund-Nielsen, CEO of Denmark-based recycling firm Gypsum Recycling International (GRI).
Speaking at a session at EcoExpo Asia 2014, held in Hong Kong, Lund-Nielsen said in most countries around the world gypsum scrap “has been landfilled with other mixed waste,” which he characterized as a missed opportunity. “You don’t get all the resources out of the gypsum” by landfilling it, he commented.
GRI is a 10-year-old company that makes gypsum powder and recyclable paper from scrap gypsum, said Lund-Nielsen. He said gypsum wallboard makes up a growing percentage of the construction and demolition (C&D) scrap stream, with C&D materials now accounting on average for some 25 percent of the waste and recycling stream in many countries. Gypsum wallboard is often the third-largest part of the C&D stream, he claimed.
Lund-Nielsen said the Scandinavian and Benelux countries of Europe have demonstrated that up to 95 percent of the C&D stream can be recycled, with gypsum scrap among those recyclable materials.
Since gypsum wallboard products are designed to be flame-resistant, they “cannot be incinerated,” said the GRI CEO. In landfills, they can create hydrogen sulfide (H2S) gasses that are toxic and produce foul odors.
In addition to avoiding these problems, recycling gypsum also represents an opportunity for the rest of the world, said Lund-Nielsen. “This is recyclable—it is completely stupid to put it in the landfill. We need a change of mindset.”
Policymakers can help spur gypsum recycling, as they have in northern Europe, said Lund-Nielsen. He cited high landfill and incinerator taxes, landfill bans, source separation of materials at C&D job sites and a “strong culture of inspection and penalties” as effective policies.
He noted that the gypsum powder processed from what GRI collects is used by five of Europe’s leading wallboard producers, with recycled gypsum meeting “about 25 percent” of the regional gypsum needs in Western Europe.
The paper fraction was initially composted or sent to waste-to-energy facilities by GRI, but the company has researched and worked to turn it into a scrap paper grade acceptable to paper mills as feedstock, Lund-Nielson explained.
“The question with gypsum scrap is not whether to recycle, but when do you start,” Lund-Nielson stated.
EcoExpo Asia 2014, organized by Messe Frankfurt (HK) Ltd., was Oct. 29-Nov. 1 at the AsiaWorld-Expo convention center in Hong Kong.