NRC Congress: Greener Education

College campuses face many of the same challenges and barriers to C&D recycling as any other entity looking to build green. Strong communication and well-defined contract specifications are key elements to overcoming these barriers, according to David Jones, University of North Carolina, Charlotte, N.C., who addressed attendees of a session entitled “Delving into C&D Waste on College Campuses,” at the National Recycling Coalition (NRC) Annual Congress held recently in Atlanta.

Jones said low tipping fees of $25 per ton, few regulations and an immature market challenged C&D recycling efforts on UNC Charlotte construction projects, which aimed for a 30 percent recycling rate. His team also faced some internal barriers, including the perception that C&D recycling would add a prohibitive amount of time to the project, cost too much and that the sites were too small to allow for multiple rolloff containers to separate recyclables.

Jones credited education on the cost benefits of recycling C&D materials and communication with the stakeholders in the project with overcoming those barriers, which has lead to a 133-percent increase in C&D recycling in campus construction projects.

Sarah Myers of University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, N.C., said that there are numerous opportunities for C&D recycling at the school, where there is currently $1.5 billion to $2 billion of construction and renovation taking place.

Myers said carefully detailed specifications facilitated the recycling of C&D debris on one specific project at UNC Chapel Hill. She said contracts for the demolition of Venable Hall, a chemistry and marine sciences building, broke C&D material management down into several categories, including materials for reuse in the project itself, materials for reuse elsewhere on campus, materials that must be recycled by law, project-specific materials to be recycled and suggested salvageable materials.

Myers advocated constant follow-up with all stakeholders involved to make certain that everyone shares the same ideas about recycling. She also said to question authority, recalling an incident where she was told it was impossible to recycle steel with lead-based paint, when on further investigation she found it was in fact possible and was able to recycle the material.

Mark Lennon, of the Institution Recycling Network, Concord, N.H., shared some case studies from his experience with C&D recycling on college campuses and advised those with their eyes on meeting green building requirements to plan for recycling early.

Lennon said he had to deal with some negative attitudes toward recycling on a construction project at Boston’s Emerson College. He said the contractor on the construction of the Piano Row residence building was “inexperienced, and anti-recycling,” and that the hauler was also reluctant to change standard practices to include C&D recycling. In addition, the workspace was tight—allowing for only one to two containers. In spite of these obstacles, the project still yielded 163.2 tons of recycled gypsum, 179.7 tons of concrete, asphalt and brick and 822 tons of mixed debris, among other materials. Lennon said the project achieved an 82 percent recycling rate, and credits an excellent spec, good communication and flexibility with achieving that number.

Local reuse drove the success of another project—the demolition, interior gutting and renovation of VT Law School’s Debevoise Hall. The building had historical value, which provided additional challenges on the project as crews had to be careful to preserve its historical significance. Crews were able to take advantage of local reuse markets and achieve an 80 percent recycling rate on that project, Lennon said.

The NRC Congress was held Oct. 22-25 in Atlanta. More information is available at www.nrc-recycle.org.