Recycling processes and environmental impact

Recycling

City recycling programs are a growing trend in the United States, especially in cities with progressive-minded mayors. Although our city has established residential collection sites for recycling household products, a very good move, more needs to be done -- particularly, in regard to the debris that is currently going into the landfill from construction and demolition projects.

Many cities are taking legal steps to control the pile-up of construction and demolition debris. The city of San Diego, for instance, put through an ordinance requiring contractors to recycle their debris, thus keeping it out of the landfill. The purpose of the ordinance is to lengthen the life of the city's landfill, which was scheduled to close in seven years. About one-third of the trash buried in the landfill was from construction and demolition -- to the tune of about 400,000 tons a year. By recycling, the life of the landfill will be extended. City officials also hope that by doing this, they can achieve the mandate of California's Integrated Waste Management Act which calls for a 50% diversion rate (Ursery, 2005).

Chicago is also enforcing a construction and demolition recycling ordinance. The city took over an illegal dump and the cost to the city was going to be $20 million to clean it up. But by recycling 80% of the material in the dump, the city saved $11 million and established the Chicago Center for Green Technology. A number of contractors were already recycling up to 80% of their debris without additional expenses. So the city has passed a C & D. debris recycling ordinance. As of 2007, the city requires that contractors recycle at least 50%, which keeps a considerable amount of material out of the landfills (Grzeskowiak, 2006).

Other cities are doing it too. Various factors have contributed to the trend -- recycling rate goals, higher tip fees, and near-capacity landfills make recycling C & D. materials an attractive alternative. Mandating requirements are only one way to go about controlling the problem of C & D. waste.

Some cities are offering incentives for recycling; others have banned certain materials from landfills. In July 2006, Massachusetts banned asphalt pavement, brick, concrete, metal and wood from the landfill, making recycling necessary (Ursery, 2005).

Chicago's decision was part of a growing interest in green building and in making the city environmentally friendly. Every new building has to conform to standards of environmental quality as set forth by the U.S. Green Building Council's Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design. The standards include recycling C & D. debris. The Chicago Center for Green Technology got an award for its building (Grzeskowiak, 2006). Our city could do the same. Tallahassee, Florida recently renovated their Solid Waste Administration building to conform to green standards (Grzeskowiak, 2006). A successful "green" building has been built in New York City -- the first green high-rise residential building in the United States. The designers set up a wastewater treatment system that sends flushwater to all the toilets in the building and to an adjacent building (Zavoda, 2006).

In all of this, the city makes the rules and sets the standards. Our city needs to require recycling of construction and demolition debris, too, and encourage green building.