November 10, 2006

Economic Focus

Economic forces best motivator for source separation

Companies need to research local recycling market

PETER KENTER

correspondent

The ancient Romans understood the economic aspects of construction and demolition (C&D) recycling, re-using stones left over from old roads to build new ones. While regulation can enforce recycling activities, economic advantage tends to be the best motivator.

Given the high cost of tipping fees and the development of a broader recycling industry, many C&D companies are meeting the recycling market half way, making an effort to process materials to make them more marketable.

" . . . find out what condition of material is acceptable, then focus on building a system to streamline the collection of those materials."

Bryan Sinram

Sherbrooke OEM

Sherbrooke OEM, in Sherbrooke, Quebec, is a supplier of turnkey C&D recycling systems and conveyors designed to separate a variety of materials at the source, depending on the sorting attachments used.

Before purchasing a system, companies first need to research the local recycling economy.

“The important thing to remember is to work backwards from your market,” says Bryan Sinram, vice president of the company. “Establish your local market for the materials first, find out what condition of material is acceptable, then focus on building a system to streamline the collection of those materials.”

After valuable larger items are removed, systems help to screen various materials by size, weight and composition by using vibration, centrifugal force, air, water and a series of screens of varying sizes. Advanced optical systems can scan and sort automatically, separating such materials as wood, paper and PVC from co-mingled waste.

The systems can be cost-effective for large contractors which need to sift through vast amounts of waste material on a regular basis. “It doesn’t eliminate the manual picking through the material, but it automates a lot of it,” says Sinram.

Although public-spiritedness and regulation help to promote recycling efforts, Sinram says profit is the prime motivator for recycling among the company’s customers.

“Most of them are doing it because they’re making more money,” he says. “In areas where tipping fees are still low, we don’t see as many sales, so it really is motivated by economics.”

Smaller companies without locally developed recycling markets often find that thorough source separation still isn’t economically feasible.

“We try to separate as much as we can,” says Jerry Fortin, owner of Down Demolition in Newmarket. “But much of the material isn’t yet worth separating because it’s still cheaper to ship off to a U.S. landfill.”

Some recent large-scale projects, such as the demolition of an old parking building at Toronto Pearson International Airport by Priestly Demolition, have achieved 98 per cent recycling levels, aided primarily by on-site sorting and reuse of materials on the same site.

Demolition of Toronto’s Regent Park housing complex by Restoration Environmental Contractors achieved recycling levels over 90 per cent.

In order to promote C&D source recycling, regulators need to provide a level playing field where all companies in the sector — large or small — can participate without economic penalty, says Dan Zembal, chair of Alberta’s C&D Waste Reduction Advisory Committee and president-elect of the Recycling Council of Alberta. Regulating disposal options will help to create a steady supply of material that will lead to the development of viable recycling industries for almost all material, he says.

At that point, construction sector companies will be motivated by profit to practice source separation, in order to enhance the value of the material in a stable recycling market.

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