C&D World 2015: Revising regulations

For construction and demolition (C&D) recyclers, when regulatory and rulemaking processes are put into question their daily operations could be vastly affected. Jason Haus, CEO and co-owner of Dem-Con Cos., Shakopee, Minnesota, experienced this firsthand when the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) introduced the Non-Hazardous Secondary Materials Rule (NHSM) in 2012.

 

Dem-Con, in business for close to 50 years, operates a C&D material recovery facility (MRF), a single-stream MRF, a shingle processing yard, a wood processing facility and a landfill. The company recovers wood in large amounts, as do many other C&D recyclers, he said.

 

During C&D World 2015, the annual meeting of the Construction & Demolition Recycling Association (CDRA), Aurora, Illinois, Haus updated attendees on different legislative rulings affecting the C&D industry on a national level. His session, held March 30, was titled “Legislation and Regulation that Affects the C&D Recycling Industry.”

 

“This is one of the most important issues facing the CDRA in its history,” Haus said of NHSM. 

 

He explained that EPA’s NHSM rulemaking process related to regulations on C&D wood fuel would put some C&D recyclers at risk, including his own company. The rule’s intent is to clarify whether materials accepted by a facility are a solid waste.

 

“EPA wanted to not give [wood] a categorical exemption so the only facility we would be able to take this material to would be a combustor-style power plant, and all the biomass options would have been out of play for us, and that’s something we didn’t want to see happen. So we got aggressive,” Haus explained.

 

“For those people who operate plants with a solid wood market, it’s an incredible revenue driver,” Haus said. 

 

He continued, “One of the things we needed to do with this rule is make sure none of our end markets are stripped away.”

 

The company has been working with the EPA on the use of clean wood material in biomass plants, Haus said. Dem-Con has participated in data collection and analysis, which Haus said proves that wood separated from C&D MRFs with proper oversight and training can produce clean, high-quality materials.

 

He explained how the CDRA joined forces with other lobbying groups to “open the eyes” of EPA officials who were set to establish the rules. To accomplish this, groups, including EPA rule makers, toured Broad Run Recycling  in Manassas, Virginia, to provide hands-on education of the processing of wood at C&D MRFs.

 

Across the country, C&D MRFs took samples, sent them to laboratories and “had all the analyses EPA wanted,” all of which came back clean, Haus said.

 

“We had to prove the material is worthy,” Haus said, adding, “We were able to prove through our testing and science that [bad, contaminated wood] is just not the case and that’s made a large impact.”

 

While NHSM is in its third year of contemplation, Haus said it is finally coming to a closure. He said what C&D processors will probably end up dealing with is additional staff training to ensure sorters are picking wood appropriately. Extra documentation and routine testing also might result from the final NHSM ruling, he suggested.

 

“The main point overall is that best practices are going to have to be put in place,” Haus said.

 

While the NHSM ruling affects mostly C&D wood recyclers, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s (OSHA’s) proposed rule to lower worker exposure to crystalline silica affects every operator dealing with cutting, sawing, drilling and crushing of concrete, brick, block and other stone products or use sand products in their business such as glass manufacturers, foundries and sand blasters.

 

Haus pointed out that OSHA’s initiative has been around for a decade. During that time, deaths from silicosis have fallen dramatically. 

 

“The [silicosis] problem has been steadily decreasing, but the agency’s goal is to eliminate all deaths from silica,” Haus said of OSHA’s proposed silica standards. 

 

He added, “This is incredibly important for crushing guys.”

 

OSHA’s proposed rule would lower the permissible exposure limits (PEL) to 50 micrograms per cubic meter (µg/m3) for all covered industry sectors as an eight-hour time-weighted average (TWA) for all forms of respirable crystalline silica. Current levels for workplace exposure to silica were adopted in 1971 and are 100 µg/m3 for general industry and 250 µg/m3 as a TWA for the construction industry.

 

OSHA estimates that once the full effects of the proposed rule are realized, it will save nearly 700 lives and prevent 1,600 new cases of silicosis per year.

 

Haus said the lowered PEL to 50 µg “is virtually no dust from operations,” which, of course, is not a reality for most C&D recyclers.

 

CDRA joined 22 other associations to create a coordinated response to OSHA, Haus said. Much of OSHA’s responses have been technical refuting, Haus pointed out.

 

“There’s a reality to dealing with products like we do,” he said. “Imagine putting a baghouse in a concrete plant. It’s not a workable scenario.”

 

While Haus said the CDRA estimated the cost to the industries affected by OSHA’s silica rule to be “in the billions of dollars” and EPA’s estimates near the $800 million mark, a report released in late March 2015 by the Construction Industry Safety Coalition (CISC) conveyed a much higher figure. CISC says OSHA’s proposed rule has been underestimated by the agency with the new estimates showing a cost to the industry of $5 billion a year, nearly 10 times OSHA’s initial estimate.  

 

Without question, C&D recyclers will want to ensure they are monitoring this ruling because of the cost factor, Haus warned. 

 

“Our best avenue is to continue to work on it, flood them with data and hopefully it drags on long enough. We will do everything we can,” Haus said.

 

Regional regulations. Something else to monitor in the industry, Haus advised, is the Plainfield Renewable Energy (PRE) facility in Connecticut. The $220 million biomass generation facility is capable of producing electricity from wood collected from C&D debris.

 

Opened in December 2013, Haus updated attendees on how less than a year ago “they ran into issues.”

 

While PRE opened under a criteria that 36 percent of the fuel to be used was to be sustainable biomass (C&D wood), facility operators sought relief of that percentage requirement. 

 

“If PRE stopped using C&D wood, most New England recyclers would be negatively affected,” Haus said. 

 

While Haus admitted PRE is a regional problem, “we’re in it to win it,” he said.

 

“We’re continually monitoring what’s going on at Plainfield. We have to make sure we monitor this,” he said.

 

Highlighting the Northwest was speaker Jim Neely, program manager and supervisor of Washington’s King County Solid Waste Division, who discussed the county’s recycling capabilities. Currently with a recycling rate of 67 percent, King County’s goal is to reach a recycling rate of 85 percent by 2025, Neely said. 

 

The county processes 800,000 tons of municipal solid waste (MSW) per year, with C&D debris coming in at 200,000 tons each year, Neely said.

 

“We ensure it’s going to a C&D operation and not landfill,” he said of the recovered C&D debris.

 

The county brings in a range of materials today, and by 2016 disposal bans will help to lessen how much concrete, asphalt, brick, metal, cardboard and gypsum scrap and wood will head to the landfill. By 2017, King County is planning to add plastic film wrap and tear-off asphalt shingles to its list of materials banned for disposal. 

 

Neely helps to run King County’s Local Hazardous Waste Management Program to manage these wastes on a regional basis.

 

The program brings together resources from four government agencies and 37 suburban cities to help citizens, businesses, nonprofit organizations and government agencies reduce the threat posed by the production, use, storage and disposal of hazardous materials. The partners are the King County Water and Land Resources Division; King County Solid Waste Division; Seattle Public Utilities; Public Health—Seattle & King County; and the Suburban Cities Association.

 

On its website, www.your.kingcounty.gov, the King County Solid Waste Division lists several C&D debris materials accepted and options of businesses and organizations that will take unwanted materials for reuse, recycling or disposal.

 

David Hillcoat, general manager of Brooklyn, New York-based Cooper Tank & Welding Corp., focused on New York City’s Rule 495. On the East Coast, Intro 495 is a bill that proposes to reduce waste transfer station capacity in certain New York City neighborhoods.

 

Hillcoat, who has previously spoken out against Intro 495, explained how the bill would affect C&D recyclers. Hillcoat and other industry officials have cited job loss, increased traffic and higher costs for local New York City businesses as reasons to oppose the bill.

 

“C&D recycling is only effective at transfer stations because of space,” Hillcoat said.

 

Space is limited in New York, and what is done with that space always matters, he continued.

 

He explained how city planning and land use regulations need to be coordinated with demographic trends “to ensure a sustainable cohabitation for businesses and residents.”

 

As an example, he shared how a Brooklyn transfer station was erected next to new, expensive apartments.

 

Hillcoat’s idea is to get the industry more involved with one another, to prevent these types of mishaps from occurring in the future.

 

“We should spend more money on PR and industry associations with a defined outreach,” Hillcoat stated.

 

Gary Sondermeyer, moderator and final speaker of the session, presented the results of the CDRA’s “50 State Regulatory Profile Initiative.” Sondermeyer is the vice president of operations for Bayshore Recycling, based in Keasbey, New Jersey. What started from a member survey in 2013 turned into a project that finished six months ahead of schedule with impressive response rates, Sondermeyer said.

 

All 50 state Department of Environmental Protection agencies responded, he said. 

 

“The challenge for states was to quickly summarize how C&D works in their state. There weren’t many responses there,” Sondermeyer said.

 

The updated effort, available in its entirety to CDRA members at the association’s website, www.cdrecycling.org/state-profiles, allows viewers to click on each state to access the regulatory information. 

 

Of all of the collected data, Sondermeyer said he was “very surprised” only five of 23 states require scales at C&D operations. 

 

“Eighteen states have information that’s soft data because you’re not really weighing,” he noted.

 

C&D Word 2015 was held March 29-31 at the Music City Center in Nashville, Tennessee.