Green demolitions at landfill?

Immediate cost versus long term benefit

By FRITZ MAYER

MONTICELLO, NY — Could local contractors be convinced to methodically take buildings apart rather than knocking them down? If there were a way to make it economically competitive, the answer might be yes. And John Kehlenbeck, the director of solid waste management in Sullivan County, thinks some type of green demolition program should be instituted at the county landfill.

Kehlenbeck put the green demolition forward at a meeting of the Department of Public Works (DPW) at the government center on May 3. Robert Meyer, DPW commissioner, agreed that the idea is worthy of consideration.

Legislator Sam Wohl was skeptical. He said, “Wouldn’t it be cost prohibitive?”

Kehlenbeck replied, “There’s a way to do it.”

Wohl said, “Anything can be done with enough money.”

While Kehlenbeck did not disclose the specifics of any such program, private companies in some areas are already practicing green demolition.

Taylor Recycling in Orange County, for instance, takes demolition materials, or construction and demolition debris (C&D), from contractors and recycles much of the material. The paper from old wallboard is turned into bedding for cows and horses, or sold to paper mills for the manufacture of recycled paper. The gypsum from wallboard is recovered and used to make new wallboard. Much of the wood is turned into mulch.

The salvage and resale of architecturally desirable building features can add to the revenue that can be produced in a green demolition project.

Kehlenbeck and Meyer were not just talking green for the sake of green. A green demolition program would help the landfill in two important ways: space and odor.

First the space issue.

The landfill phase two expansion is currently tied up in court, and county attorney Sam Yasgur said that, under best case scenario, construction of phase two might begin in January 2008, with two years needed to complete construction before any garbage can be dumped in the new cells.

With a remaining capacity of 199,708 tons of garbage, and with garbage coming in at 77,000 tons per year, there is a good chance that the county will have to pay to ship garbage elsewhere for a while before phase two is operational. If C&D deposits at the landfill, which have already been reduced through increased C&D tipping fees, can be further reduced, space at the landfill will last a bit longer.

Now the odor issue.

The lion’s share of the odor that caused so many problems in 2003 and 2004 was produced by discarded wallboard. The gypsum in the wallboard contains sulfites, and when the sulfite mixes with water, that familiar rotten-egg smell is created. While, by most accounts, the landfill personnel have done a good job of mitigating the landfill odor, it would still be beneficial to further reduce wallboard quantities in the landfill.

Other garbage notes

County recycling guru Bill Cutler informed the committee that residents had turned in 2,624 old tires during tire amnesty week, which ended on May 3. Cutler said that was slightly fewer tires than expected, but that probably meant that the number of tires on the sides of the county roads was diminishing. Even so, by dropping off the tires during the amnesty rather than paying the normal $2.50 per tire disposal fee, residents saved more than $8,000.

During the county-wide litter pluck, Legislator Jodi Goodman, who participated in the litter pluck in Liberty, bemoaned the fact that some people don’t recognize cigarette butts as litter, and she collected quite a few of them, which was upsetting to her. “That’s a road rage thing for me,” she said.

Cutler agreed that cigarette butts are, indeed, litter and said that most of them have fiberglass filters and therefore take 200 years to break down.