Tiffany Wilmot stated that construction and demolition (C&D) recycling makes good environmental and economic sense during her remarks Monday evening, April 22, at Recycle Rutherford’s annual meeting.
Explaining that the materials from taking down a building—rubble, metal, wood, and mixed waste—are easy to recycle and are commodities that should be used in manufacturing new materials, Wilmot said, “It’s easy to recycle 50% of C&D materials; 75% is attainable; and 95% is achievable.”
She is president of Wilmot, Inc. a green building and sustainability consulting firm located in Nashville. Helping reach these impressive percentages is one of the services her firm provides to clients. Besides returning the commodities to the local economy and being the right thing to do, other advantages of C&D recycling include lengthening landfill life, creating jobs, and reducing the need for virgin materials.
Wilmot further pointed out that there is some cost associated with sorting the materials—probably about $50 a dumpster—because it is labor intensive; however, the company avoids landfill tipping fees.
Citing some specific examples, Wilmot explained that grinding drywall, which is made largely of gypsum—makes it possible to get more into a dumpster and that the resulting powder can go directly back into new drywall; other uses are animal bedding and soil amendment.
She said that grinding concrete on site not only creates different sizes of material for different uses, but it makes available the rebar, which can be recycled as metal. Some 65,000 tons of concrete were reused during a renovation project at Nashville’s LP Field.
As part of its annual meeting, Recycle Rutherford members elected Glenn Himebaugh as president and board members Ed Arning, Rachel Cornett, and Rick Racker.
Source Information:
The volunteer organization is dedicated to increasing recycling in Rutherford County. To become a member or request more information, please visit www.recyclerutherford.org, email recyclerutherford@yahoo.com, or call 615-687-3497.
