News of Interest

February 8, 2007

State DEP Seeks AGC Input on Possible Gypsum Ban

DEP has invited AGC to a forum in late March to further discuss the issue of a ban on clean gypsum wallboard from all landfills. Any AGC member is invited to attend to discuss the issues and the whole philosophy behind incentives for source separation of current and future banned materials.

AGC has been working with the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) for the past several years on all issues relating to construction and demolition (C&D) waste removal and processing. In 2000, AGC successfully lobbied DEP to back away from a proposed regulation requiring construction job-site source separation of banned C&D items such as asphalt, brick, concrete, cardboard, metal and clean wood. These materials were banned from all landfills as of July 2006. Instead, the regulations followed the waste stream to the processors and solid waste facilities for action, separation and disposal.

The DEP is now asking “What if we were to now ban clean gypsum wallboard from all landfills?” This question was a topic at the 1st Annual C&D Waste Summit last week co-sponsored by the Environmental Business Council, DEP and AGC. Apparently, gypsum wallboard has been and continues to be a growing health problem at disposal and landfills by contributing to hydrogen sulfide issues. Much of the discussion at the conference morphed into possibly adding clean gypsum to the list of already banned materials. There is a lot of momentum being generated in communities, with landfills and processors, and within the DEP hierarchy to ban clean gypsum.

The issues for AGC are that if a ban were to take place

1. What will be the source separation requirements, if any?
2. Where are the acceptable outlets for clean gypsum disposal?
3. What is the after-market for the material?
4. Are there adequate financial incentives for voluntary re-use/recycling, etc.?

DEP claims that it already has the regulatory authority to ban the material and to put the onus on the waste generator—the construction site—for the first line of defense for any ban.