Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category

The Recycling Certification Institute is pleased to announce two additional facilities have successfully completed their RCI certification process and the RCI Board of Governance has voted to approve their certifications.  The facilities are:

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/

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We are excited to announce that the Richard S. Burns TOMMYcart® System located in Philadelphia, PA has completed RCI’s rigorous review process and is now Certified!  This makes Burns’ TOMMYcart® System the first Mixed C&D operation to become RCI-Certified in Pennsylvania.  What makes this operation so unique?

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!

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We are excited to announce that three facilities have recently passed RCI’s vigorous third-party verification process and acquired their RCI Certification!

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

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Congratulations to WM Tualatin Valley Waste Recovery for attaining RCI Certification! Located just outside of Portland, OR, WM TVWR is the second RCI-Certified Facility in the Portland area, and our fourth Certified Facility in the Pacific Northwest.

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

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Congratulations to NYC for creating a coalition to reduce GHGs within the construction industry in North America. Expanding the electric construction equipment market provides more benefits than simply reducing GHG emission reductions.  Read on for more details in the NYC Mayor’s Office of Climate & Environmental Justice LinkedIn post below.

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.

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Congratulations to Contra Costa Waste Services for certifying their Mount Diablo Resource Recovery Mixed C&D Line.  It was a pleasure working with their team to complete their Certification.  From their Press Release:

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.

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February 20, 2024

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.

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LEED v5 for O+M: Existing Buildings (Beta Version) shows promise in addressing some of the hard(er)-to-recover materials in demolition, renovation, and remodeling projects. Materials like carpet, acoustical ceiling tile, furniture, and gypsum wallboard/drywall tend to have higher embodied-carbon ratings, so incentivizing their pathway into closed-loop product take-back manufacturing systems makes sense.

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

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C&D World 2024

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!

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“C&D World 2022 Success”

That is the headline in CDRA’s recent newsletter and comments I’ve heard from attendess would echo that message.  The C&D industry looks to be firing on all cylinders and on the advance.  From CDRA:

“What a great show!” was the consensus from attendees at C&D World 2022, the Annual Meeting of the CDRA held March 12-15 in Atlanta. From the well-attended committee meetings on March 12—a Saturday, no less—to a sold-out tour on March 15 hosted by the gracious team at Luck Stone, there were nothing but high points for the 29th C&D World. Attendance returned to pre-pandemic levels, proving that C&D leaders were ready to get together and discuss the issues facing the industry. Presenters covered the gauntlet from an economic forecast to operations at mixed C&D recycling plants. And attendees were able to interact and learn from each other, just as the conference was originally designed to do. We also want to thank the sponsors of the event: Komptech Americas and Plexus Recycling Technologies, CDE, Sparta, General Kinematics, Torxx, Eagle Crusher, VAN DYK Recycling Solutions, Starlight Software, Amp Robotics, Recycling Today Media Group, Untha, Sennebogen, Fire Rover, Machinex, and GreenWaste. Be sure to save the date for C&D World 2023, taking place March 14-15 in Las Vegas alongside ConExpo-Con/Agg.

We would also like to acknowledge the 2022 CDRA Award Recipients for their successes and contributions to the C&D industry.  Of particular note are the RCI Registered and Certified Facilities as recipients of Best Practices in Safety Awards.  Congratulations to all the CDRA award winners!

Presented at C&D World in Atlanta, GA

CDRA Hall of Fame – Dan Costello, Costello Dismantling Company, Inc. 
The Hall of Fame, the industry’s highest honor, celebrates individuals whose careers have best served the industry and the CDRA.

CDRA Member of the Year – Becky Caldwell, Caldwell Environmental Solutions
The CDRA Member of the Year is selected based on extraordinary service to the mission of the organization and the C&D Recycling industry over the previous 12-month period.

C&D Recycler of the Year – Posillico Materials
The C&D Recycler of the Year honors those Recycling Operations in the Construction and Demolition Recycling industry who have made an extraordinary contribution to the industry.

Best Practices in Safety Awards
Gold Award: Champion Waste & Recycling, Cherry Companies, Dem-Con Companies, DTG Recycle, Gray & Son, Lautenbach Recycling, Michael Brothers Hauling & Recycling, Premier Recycle Company, and Southwind RAS

Silver Award: R&B Debris and JR Ramon Demolition

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