September 14, 2000

County trying to curb construction waste

From his office in the King Street Center, Bill Smith had a front row seat for Kingdome's last demo derby. As project manager for King County's Construction Works Program, Smith was pleased with what he saw.

Aman Environmental Construction clears away concrete and rebar debris from the Kingdome.

"Nearly 90 percent of the concrete was crushed on-site and 60 percent is being re-used on-site," said Smith. "It's amazing to see how quickly the Kingdome was converted into large piles of reusable fill."

In recognition of its recycling efforts on the project, Turner Construction was awarded the July Corporate Earth Hero award for re-using materials from the Kingdome. Construction Works -- a program administered by the county's Solid Waste Division and the Seattle Chamber of Commerce Business and Industry Recycling Venture -- recognizes companies that make special efforts to recycle, reduce waste and use recycled products on the job.

In June the 4-year-old county program launched Construction Works NewsGram, written by Smith. The weekly newsletter informs members on recycling trends and helps companies draft plans for recycling everything from drywall to wood, metal and concrete at the job site.

"We get the word out that the recycling infrastructure is very good and spread the word about the economics of recycling," said Smith.

Construction Works assigns members with "basic" and "distinguished" titles. Basic members recycle 40 percent of waste and use at least three recycled products. Distinguished members recycle 60 percent of waste and use at least six recycled products. Distinguished members include Turner, Baugh Construction, Sellen Construction and Howard S. Wright Construction.

Construction Works offers a methodical approach to material recycling.

"It's much easier to do things like salvage waste from demolition sites and choosing recycled-content building materials when they've been planned from the very beginning," said Smith. To that end, he suggests these steps: start early, analyze project waste, research recycling options, select recyclers, determine the savings, develop the plan and monitor the program.

To help calculate project waste, Construction Works estimates that, on new residential construction sites, about 25 percent of wood is wasted, 10 percent of cardboard, 4.5 percent of concrete/asphalt and 1 percent of metal. On commercial sites, 18 percent of wood is wasted, 7.5 percent of cardboard, 15 percent of concrete/asphalt and 4.5 percent of metal.

To help with recycling options, the Web site offers a construction, demolition and landclearing directory listing local recyclers for common and not-so-common materials. In addition, the site offers a Project Waste Analysis worksheet, as well as a listing site for re-usable building materials called the Reusable Building Materials Exchange. These services are free.

After determining the waste streams from the project and analyzing the recycling and re-use potential of the material, Smith said it's best to choose how the materials will be recycled. The four methods of collection are contracted commercial haulers, self-hauling, clean-up services and co-mingled recycling. Smith suggests commercial haulers for projects where large quantities of materials are generated and self-hauling for residential construction and remodeling. Clean-up services offer garbage and recycling services all in one, and co-mingling services collect containers of mixed recyclables or mixed garbage and separate them at the waste-handling facility.

About 60 percent of the Kingdome's concrete rubble is being re-used on-site.

To calculate cost-effectiveness of recycling materials, Construction Works provides a recycling economic worksheet to determine the costs of one of the services or two or more combined.

R.W. Rhine of Tacoma made its recycling program pay with the demolition phase of the Regional Justice Center in Kent by crushing 28,640 tons of concrete. Most of the debris was re-used as base material and the rest was taken to a local concrete recycler. Rhine saved about $265,000 through its efforts, Smith said.

The cost-savings pencil-out with other materials as well. Fees for recycling wood, for example, are about $25 to $45 per ton -- compared with $79 to $84 per ton for disposal.

For subcontractors unfamiliar with recycling practices, some of the larger firms -- such as Turner Construction --- include specific language in their subcontractor agreements. Turner requires subcontractors to recycle all wood, metals, cardboard and drywall waste by following source separation requirements for each material and using on-site containers for each material.

Smith said educating crews and subcontractors about waste prevention requirements, and designing a recycling education program, are effective ways to manage a recycling program. Designating a person to manage the details of creating and implementing the program is also a key step, he said.

While the program is gaining members and recruiting more e-mail subscribers to NewsGram, Smith said a recent county audit of wastestream materials did not show a significant drop in the amount of recyclable construction materials taken to landfills.

"We still have a ways to go to get the word out," he said. "I think more and more contractors understand the financial and environmental benefits of green building and more and more of them will participate on a regular basis."

For membership information, visit www.metrokc.gov/dnr/swd/bizprog or call (206) 296-4407. Membership and the newsletter are free.

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