MCS Recycling LLC

7201 E. Marginal Way S
Seattle, WA 98108
MCSrecyclingllc.com

LRS (Lakeshore Recycling Systems)

3152 S. California Ave.
Chicago, IL 60608
LRSrecycles.com

RCI certification is facility specific. The certification process is a rigorous process through which the facilities’ recycling processes are audited by third-party evaluators and their data are certified as accurate, transparent, and reliable according to the protocols and standards of the Recycling Certification Institute.

Independent third-party evaluation is required for all facilities to ensure that the recovery and recycling rates stated within the facility’s application for certification are accurate.

“We are thrilled to continue growing the number of RCI certified facilities across the United States” says RCI Chief Operating Officer Randy Wolf. “Verifiable recycling of mixed construction materials and demolition debris is essential to ensuring that all stake holders in the projects these facilities serve can be confident that the recycling levels they claim are correct and accurate.”

“Serving customers throughout the Seattle region, MCS has worked rigorously to build accurate and reliable processes to recycle the materials that enter our facility. We’ve also worked to ensure we have reliable end markets for this material. Achieving the RCI certification allows our customers to trust that we are indeed helping them reach their sustainability objectives” says Michael Sheldon, CEO of MCS Recycling.

“The Chicago market sets a high standard. Many of our customers are working toward important circularity and sustainability goals in their construction projects. Achieving RCI certification for our California Ave. facility gives them confidence that the diversion data we provide is verified and accurate,” said Matt Spencer, CEO of LRS. “We’re proud of the work our team has done to achieve this certification.”

https://www.cdrecycler.com/news/lakeshore-recycling-systems-mcsrecycling-acheive-rci-certification/

The Richard S. Burns and Company facility is centered around a unique technology-driven way of collecting, tracking, and processing commingled or source separated construction debris. The Material Recovery process and TOMMYcart® System designed by members of the Richard S. Burns and Company team (holding multiple US Patents for design and use) is an innovative cart distribution, collection, and recovery tracking system. The TOMMYcart® System utilizes unique identification technology allowing carts to be assigned to a specific project site, client, or tradesmen, able to track waste from inception at the point of generation, through collection, separation, and recovery activities. This industry-leading technology aligns directly with materials management tracking and reporting requirements of projects following the US Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design (LEED) Rating System for green building certification.

Check them out on RCI’s Certified Facilities page.

CONGRATULATIONS TO THE TEAM AT RICHARD S. BURNS AND COMPANY!

In the New England area, we have added two Resource Waste Services (RWS) Mixed C&D operations in Salem and Epping, New Hampshire.  These two facilities join two other RWS Mixed C&D operations previously Certified by RCI (Roxbury, MA and Lewiston, ME).

In the Pacific Northwest, Debris To Green Recycling (DTG) has achieved RCI Certification for their Mixed C&D operation in Redmond, Washington. This facility joins another RCI-Certified DTG Mixed C&D operation (Tacoma, WA).

Be sure to check them out on RCI’s Certified Facilities page.

CONGRATULATIONS AND WELCOME TO RESOURCE WASTE SERVICES AND DEBRIS TO GREEN RECYCLING!

Do you know other facilities that could benefit from the National Standard third-party verification? Drop us a line at (916) 242-8287 or email at info@recyclingcertification.org.

Through the use of independent third-party evaluators, RCI’s Certification Process:

• Provides builders, developers and LEED professionals accurate and transparent information and recycling rates, so they can have confidence in calculating the environmental performance of their construction and waste management processes

• Provides a comprehensive set of protocols, guidelines, and tools for professional assessment and certification, the Institute aims to enhance transparency and instill greater confidence in the C&D recycling industry

• Fosters trust among key stakeholders—including project owners, architects, environmental groups, municipalities, and the public—ensuring that reported recycling rates are both reliable and verifiable

We look forward to increasing the number of RCI-Certified Facilities in the region who serve the builders, contractors, and other construction professionals seeking recycling/recovery of their construction & demolition waste materials.

Through the use of independent third-party evaluators, RCI’s Certification Process:

• Provides builders, developers and LEED professionals accurate and transparent information and recycling rates, so they can have confidence in calculating the environmental performance of their construction and waste management processes

• Provides a comprehensive set of protocols, guidelines, and tools for professional assessment and certification, the Institute aims to enhance transparency and instill greater confidence in the C&D recycling industry

• Fosters trust among key stakeholders—including project owners, architects, environmental groups, municipalities, and the public—ensuring that reported recycling rates are both reliable and verifiable

Did you know the construction industry accounts for 23% of global green house gas emissions? And in 2020, around 1.9 million tons of CO2 were emitted in the five boroughs from construction, lawn, and industrial machinery.

It’s time to act now to reduce those emissions. Today, in an effort to reduce embodied carbon and accelerate clean construction by animating the market, the City of New York is launching the North American Electric Construction Coalition.

Partnering with the City of Austin, Ville de Montréal, the City of Philadelphia, the City of Los Angeles, The City of San Diego, and Boulder County, Colorado, along with C40 Cities and industry leaders like Consigli Construction Co., Inc., AIANY | Emerging New York Architects, AIA Los Angeles, the Sustainable Purchasing Leadership Council, USGBC Los Angeles Chapter, the Carbon Leadership Forum, we’re pushing to develop the electric construction equipment market and slash harmful air and noise pollution, advancing environmental justice and improving quality of life.

Together, we’re showing cities have the power to lead, innovate, and demand cleaner, quieter, and more sustainable construction practices – and demonstrating the power of cities to spur market growth.

Learn more and join the North American Electric Construction Coalition:

https://lnkd.in/eKeGuP4g.

Pittsburg, California, May 7, 2024 –  The Contra Costa Waste Services Material Recovery Facility’s Construction and Demolition (C&D) line has received certification from the Recycling Certification Institute (RCI). Contra Costa Waste Services is responsible for accepting, sorting, and diverting C&D debris. The RCI certification was granted following a comprehensive assessment conducted by an external third-party auditor of the facility’s procedures and guidelines. Additionally, it confirms the accuracy of the facility’s recovery and recycling documentation.

The Pittsburg facility is among sixteen C&D processing facilities in California that have achieved RCI certification.

“We are very pleased to have achieved this certification,” said Gary Lazdowski, the Chief Operating Officer of Contra Costa Waste Services. This certification is essential for the contractors responsible for transporting construction and demolition waste to the facility, as well as for environmental conservation efforts. It demonstrates our commitment to maximizing waste recovery. We are excited to be a Trusted + Proven + Essential partner in Contra Costa County.”

Additionally, when a contractor is involved in a project aimed at obtaining LEED greenbuilding certification (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design), they can contribute to earning credits for the certification by responsibly disposing of C&D waste at a facility that is third-party certified.

The C&D Material Recovery Facility (MRF) operation is located at 1300 Loveridge Road in Pittsburg, CA. The MRF is currently owned and operated by Mt. Diablo Resource Recovery. Nothing Wasted Consulting Group performed the evaluation for RCI. The Nothing Wasted evaluation, and additional information on RCI and the Contra Costa Waste Services facility’s performance, can be found on RCI’s website.

About Mt Diablo Resource Recovery:  Mt. Diablo Resource Recovery serves our customers, communities, and environment responsibly by optimizing the use of discarded materials. Today, Mt. Diablo Resource Recovery serves over 250,000 residents and thousands of businesses throughout Contra Costa, Napa, and Solano Counties. Mt. Diablo Resource Recovery combines excellence in customer service with competitive rates, operating recycling and recovery programs designed to increase sustainability and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Mt. Diablo Recycling, in Pittsburg, California, contains the area’s largest state-of-the-art recycling processing center to keep all recyclable items out of the landfill so as much material as possible can be recycled and reused. Our company continues to grow and change to prepare our communities for the future. Consistent with our business values, we invest in programs and technology that maximize diversion and maintain customer convenience and service. Mt. Diablo Recycling is being transformed into the Mt. Diablo Resource Recovery Park (MDRRP). This facility will expand our recovery efforts, increasing the diversion of material from going to the landfill.

Benefits Customers Seeking Certification from U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Program

The ReSource Waste Services of Lewiston facility that recycles construction and demolition waste (C&D) has been certified by the Recycling Certification Institute (RCI). The RCI certification was based on a rigorous evaluation performed by an independent third party of the facility’s processes and protocols and it also verified the integrity of the facility’s recovery/recycling reports.

The Lewiston facility is the only C&D processing facility in Maine to achieve RCI certification and is one of only two facilities in New England to achieve this certification. The other facility is ReSource Waste Services’ facility in Roxbury, Massachusetts, which achieved RCI certification in 2018.

“We are very pleased to have achieved this certification for the Lewiston facility,” said Jack Canty, the President and Chief Operating Officer of ReSource Waste Services. “This certification is important to many of the contractors who deliver C&D waste to the facility.  If a contractor is working on a project that is seeking LEED green-building certification (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design), the contractor will earn credit toward that certification by delivering the C&D generated by the project to an RCI-certified facility such as ReSource Lewiston.”

LEED construction projects, certified by the U.S. Green Building Council, are required to meet minimum recycling rates for their C&D waste. “We are proud to play a part in our region’s progress toward sustainable construction and development,” Canty said. “Verified sustainability is becoming more and more important to project developers, architects, environmental groups and government agencies.”

Stephen Bantillo, executive director of RCI, said the Institute’s national certification program ensures integrity, transparency, accuracy and reliability in the recovery/recycling reports of participating C&D recycling facilities. Bantillo said that RCI used a rigorous, open, and comprehensive process for developing its protocols. Its primary focus, he said, is on accurate recycling accounting to ensure that the recovery and recycling reports issued by certified facilities are real, verifiable, reproducible, and reasonable.

Environmental Service Management Group, Inc. (ESMG) performed the evaluation for RCI. The ESMG evaluation, and additional information on RCI and the ReSource Lewiston facility’s performance, can be found here.

About ReSource Waste Services of Lewiston

The Lewiston facility, located at 38 Alfred A. Plourde Parkway, is Maine’s largest C&D processing facility and an important component of Maine’s solid waste management system. The facility supports approximately 40 direct full-time jobs, varying by season, and dozens more indirect jobs, and spends approximately $14 million per year on operating expenses, and conducts business with more than 100 vendors and 55 customers. The facility processed approximately 180,000 tons of C&D in 2023. Personnel and equipment are used to recover as much reusable product as possible that can be sold to end markets. Recovered materials can be used to for a wide variety of uses: fuel for electricity generation; medium-density fiberboard (MDF) manufacturing; asphalt paving; new cardboard and drywall; recycled plastic and metal products; and miscellaneous construction materials and soil substitutes.

Looking at it from an operational perspective, removing these materials from the C&D materials stream could mean that the typical Mixed/Commingled C&D operation will have less hard-to-recover materials to process, sort, and eventually dispose of in landfills. Spending less time sorting low/no value materials should be a good thing, right?

Does this make up for the reduction in easy-to-recover materials (which have become increasingly source separated) being sent to Mixed/Commingled C&D operations? It depends. But it is still a benefit. Moreover, for us and others who watch these moves, it serves as another signal that the world of materials management and the policies that shape it are always in transition.

We look forward to seeing the full LEED v5 for Materials & Resources. https://www.usgbc.org/resources/leed-v5-operations-and-maintenance-existing-buildings-draft

How was 2023? Not great, but fairly good, all things considered. Some facilities struggled, which is not unusual in this industry. Most would agree C&D recycling is often challenging, sometimes exciting, but you would be hard pressed to find anyone walking around saying how easy it is. On a positive note, many of the facilities with whom we interacted the past year were optimistically exploring growth opportunities, especially related to third-party certification, and solidifying or growing their customer bases.

Furthering the positive trend, RCI brought two new Certified Facilities onboard. Welcome Mount Materials (Morrisville, PA) and ReSource Waste Services of Lewiston (Lewiston, ME). Congratulations to you both on your Certifications!

We are excited about our own growth opportunities with additional facilities becoming registered and working toward certification. We believe there are some positive moves being made within the industry that are leading to a greater interest in third-party certification.

The past couple of years RCI has been working to shift the dialogue on C&D recycling rates. Instead of focusing on high C&D recycling rates, there should be more of a focus on high performance C&D recycling. While these two things are not mutually exclusive, our experience is that focusing on the former can be more problematic than focusing on the latter. The increased interest in the topic and a slight shift in the direction of high-performance recycling is promising, but there is still a long way to go. Some may see this concept as controversial, but it makes more sense when you take a holistic look at the C&D recycling landscape. To be sure, RCI supports high recovery rates, but it is a complicated issue when you look behind the numbers. Look for more information on this topic in a future update.

We would like to extend a huge Thank You to our current Certified and Registered Facilities who continue to support third-party certification. We look forward to working with you and the growing group of facilities interested in becoming certified in 2024.

Have a great year!

January 31 – February 2 | Bonita Springs, Florida

C&D World, the CDRA’s Annual Meeting, is held each spring and is the meeting place of the C&D industry. Attendees range from the top management of leading C&D hauling and recycling companies to individuals just starting out in the business and the vendors that serve this market. C&D World features educational sessions focused on must-know trends and topics, networking during breaks and receptions, and information on the latest equipment and services.

Learn More About the Conference and Expo Here!