1. Evolving Wallboard Recycling
Closed Loop Pilot Project
Presented by:
Amanda Kaminsky, Founding Partner, Building Product Ecosystems
Terry L. Weaver, President, USA Gypsum
2. Gypsum Wallboard Recycling
1996 U.S. start ups
Close loop Fail.
“upcycling”required
20 Years!
USA Gypsum 1998 – 4,000 Sq. Ft. 2,000 Tons per Year
3. U.S Policy Impact
Clean Air Act Requires SO2 Reductions
Synthetic Gypsum Floods Market 2005-2012
Recession Shrinks Demand
Cheap Natural Gas
More Air Regulations
Less Coal Burned = Less Gypsum
Clean Air = Farmers Purchase Sulfur
Gypsum Transport
4. Photo Courtesy Of The
United States Gypsum
Company (USG)
0
2,000,000
4,000,000
6,000,000
8,000,000
10,000,000
12,000,000
14,000,000
16,000,000
18,000,000
20,000,000
Scraps Agriculture Cement Wallboard
Increased Demand - Reduced Supply
From A Waste to Resource
6. Pre Sort Is Being Done Successfully
New England Recycling, Taunton, MA
7. Gypsum Market
Owner Driven Changes
Educating construction industry
Changes in Waste Management
Recycling Growth Barriers?
Mining A Resource From Construction Waste
New USA Gypsum Drywall Recycle Plant – 100,000 Ton Capacity
8. New York City Generates 165,000* ton Year
*Source NYS DEC, 2010
Multiple Attempts to
Recycle – Limited
Success
Policy efforts since 2003
Audit Recycling Rates
Durst Initiates Building
Product Ecosystems
Evolving Wallboard
Systems Work Group
Established
One World Trade Center
One Bryant Park
11. Driver: Drywall Numbers in the U.S.
~9 million tons drywall waste generated/year
~400,000 tons recycled/year
Millions of tons being landfilled each year
21. Gypsum Category
No. of
Samples
Avg. Conc.
(ppm)
Max Conc.
(ppm)
< Detection
Limit
(0.001 ppm)
Renovation
board:
Demolition 30 0.05 0.3 40%
New trim
scrap:
Natural-
mined
6 0.04 0.1 50%
Synthetic 6 0.07 0.2 17%
Research Objective: Understand Content to Inform Reuse
22. Research Objective: Understand Content to Inform Reuse
Gypsum Source Natural-Mined Synthetic
Study
This
Study
(2015)
Yost
(2007)
Sanderson
(2008)
This
Study
(2015)
Yost
(2007)
Sanderso
n (2008)
EPA*
(2009)
Sample Size 6 - 10 6 - 12 20
Average Mercury
(ppm)
0.04 0.024 - 0.07 0.38 - -
Maximum
Mercury (ppm)
0.1 - 0.03 0.2 - 0.95 3.1
*Gypsum tested is pre-wallboard production. Other studies use post-wallboard
production gypsum.
Clean air, water & gypsum
Scrubbers installed to meet clean air act
Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL)
Countless research over 20 years supports E&S and P control
Why are we revisiting “failed close Loop” chart explains why: The questions is when?
Many of you know the challenges of wallboard in single stream systems
But 2 dozen are doing it
Barriers. Pilot is a solution that proves it can work
Tried One World Trade & didn’t work out
Packer Trucks crush wallboard to powder
7 Million Sq. Ft. Wallboard Purchased 3 Million lbs. (1,500 Ton) Scrap Estimated 273 Dumpsters
Columbia University
VIA 57 West 32 Story 700 residences + Retail
Hudson Yards 47 story mixed use (Coach Inc)
855 6th Ave 42 story mixed use (Nike)
Google 111 8th Ave
Reclaimed Gypsum is Blended With FGD/Synthetic Gypsum
Process Quality is Successful
Closed Loop Complete
Mercury is a concern in synthetic gypsum because of the production process. One of the goals of this study was to see if there is a large difference between natural and synthetic gypsum. We’ve found that synthetic gypsum does have slightly higher mercury levels. In the last column you can see that natural-mined has the highest percentage below detection limit. Since the gypsum source of the demo board is unknown, we also wanted to compare that to new trim. The maximum is higher than new trim but the average is in the same range. In the end, all samples in this pilot are below allowable standard thresholds.
Recent literature also shows higher levels for synthetic gypsum than for natural-mined. In these studies, the maximum is less than 1 ppm.
An interesting idea is gypsum may lose mercury during wallboard production. In the EPA study, they found the mercury concentration of unprocessed gypsum to be 3.1 ppm, more than 3 times that of the processed gypsum in the Sanderson study. This idea is inconclusive though, due to the variety in the synthetic gypsum feedstock and the manufacturing processes.
in order for wallboard recycling to go mainstream we need wallboard manufacturers to use some of the 4 million tons.
“Until costs and legislation associated with the disposal of scrap gypsum in landfills becomes more restrictive, recycling will likely continue to remain a low priority within the industry”. ( Source USGS)
Change Is Hard
It Can Be Done: Education Policy & Collaboration
Transparency & Accountability
The Challenge:
Price: When Will The Gypsum Market Support Closed Loop?
Volume: Will It Become A Standard Operating Procedure? (SOP)
