Fines Details

A best management practices document being prepared by the Construction Materials Recycling Association (CMRA) is intended to provide information and the guidance needed to use fines products from environmentally friendly C&D recycling centers.

The intent is to provide regulatory officials and others the science-based information needed to properly use the smallest pieces of the construction and demolition (C&D) materials stream, says CMRA president Thomas Roberts. As part of the program, the CMRA also will put together an index of all the research available on hydrogen sulfide gas emissions at landfills.

“Many regulatory agencies and customers do not understand that C&D fines present an excellent chance to recycle more material,” says CMRA president Roberts of JR Capital in Florida. “The fines are a time-proven product that when handled and used properly can provide an economic opportunity to the end user.”Roberts says the guide should help answer recent questions about whether when the fines are used as alternative daily cover they are a cause of nuisance odors. While there have been instances where hydrogen sulfide odors have arisen from landfills using C&D fines as an alternative daily cover (ADC) material, there have been hundreds of MSW and C&D landfills that have used the C&D fines as ADC with no problem, or had no problem after they followed proven, mandated landfill techniques, according to the CMRA.

“We want to highlight those techniques to show what works,” says Roberts. “This will also complement our current ongoing national study on the composition of C&D fines.”

The literature search project is being organized by published C&D researcher Dr. Timothy Townsend of the University of Florida. A central reference to the collected studies should help provide regulators the opportunity to see all the science available on the hydrogen sulfide gas emission situation at landfills.

“Too many times we have seen regulators react without seeing all the research available, and we want them to make sound judgments based on real-world data, rather than blaming C&D fines when so many other materials could be causing the situation, or that the landfill is not being operated according to regulations and best management practices,” says Townsend.

He adds that many states also allow the fines to be used as a fill material, and that best management practices will be put forth by the CMRA for that practice, as well.

To that end the CMRA is soliciting input from other interested parties for information on the best management practices guide for C&D fines. To provide data or any other comments, the CMRA can be contacted at (630) 585-7530 or info@cdrecycling.org.

The Construction Materials Recycling Association is a non-profit organization that promotes the recycling and reuse of construction and demolition material in the U.S.