A new Chaffee County business is
chipping away at environmental
and financial costs of construction
waste.
Valley Grinder has a mobile
chipping machine ready to recycle
most types of construction material
into a multi-purpose mulch.
With it, owners said, contractors
can transform wood products and
drywall that would otherwise
end up in the county landfill, into
landscaping material to be used
at the construction site.
Because construction is one of
the top industries in the county,
the machine is seen as a savior
for the landfill - not to mention
a promising business for Valley
Grinder owners Don Stephens
and Greg Follet.
“Construction debris is at least
25 percent of what goes into the
landfill,” Upper Arkansas Area
Council of Governments recycling
program board member Michael
Kunkel, said. “So every bit that
can be ground and diverted will
extend the life of the landfill.” The chipping machine accepts
most construction materials and
has a magnetic part that automatically
separates nails. The
result is a fine mulch that can be
used on site or bagged and sold
for use in other areas.
Valley Grinder owners have
contracts with several housing
developments under construction
in the valley, including South
Main in Buena Vista and Trailside
Estates in Salida.
contact info :
VALLEY GRINDER
719.207.0767 l valleygrinder.com |
In addition to an agreement with
Chaffee County to grind material
dropped at the landfill, Valley
Grinder also operates the BV Organics
Recycling Center, located
on CR 319 (Glenn Drive) next
door to the Ark. Valley Humane
Society. Hours are Tuesday and
Saturday, 10:00 am - 2:00 pm or
by appointment. Currently they
are able to accept slash, dimensional
lumber, OSB/wafer board,
LVL, I-joists, plywood, drywall,
palletes and most other construction
debris, in addition to other
previously-”unrecyclable” materials
such as green pressure-treated,
painted or stained materials.
Please contact Valley Grinder for
specifics.
Having the machine available
at the Chaffee County landfill
allowed the county to add a $30
per ton rate for clean construction
material. The rate for mixed construction
material is $47 per ton.
Follet and Stephens charge $11
per cubic yard of material on site. “We can knock 15-20 percent off
waste disposal costs on a typical
construction site,” Stephens
said. Through existing cardboard
recycling programs and use of the
Valley Grinder machine, about 75
percent of construction site waste
can be recycled, Kunkel said.
by Jason Starr
updated by Karen Weinsheimer
This story first ran March 26, 2007 |
c + d - (r) = waste
Landfill space has been diminishing
at a rapid rate for the past 20 years according to
EPA statistics, there were approximately 20,000 landfills
in the U.S. in 1978, which dropped to ~5,499 in 1988, and
fell to 3,091 in 1998. At that time, the EPA estimated that
by 2008 there would be only 1,234. Meanwhile, on a
national scale, construction and demolition (C+D) debris
accounts for 35-40% of solid waste found in landfills according
to Army Corp. of Engineers reports.
On a positive note, recycling has been a rising trend for
the past 10+ years, as more and more innovative and
green-minded companies, like Valley Grinder, create
ways to reduce construction waste AND benefit the
builder financially. In addition to recycling, the following
are some other ways to rethink how we approach
construction, remodel and demolition projects to help
reduce overall waste:
design smart
design for durability, adaptability and disassembly, all of
which make a space more available for multiple uses and
make disassembly and salvage easier.
build smart
use less-toxic building materials, encourage materials
efficiency and strive to incorporate salvaged/recovered
materials whenever possible.
reuse and recover
salvage materials for reuse whenever possible. Appliances,
bathroom fixtures, bricks, cabinets, carpeting,
lumber, doors, duct work, flooring, insulation, .light fixtures,
metal framing, paneling, pipes, plywood, shelving,
siding, stairs, tile, trim, windows and wood beams are all
examples of materials with a “high recovery potential,” as
identified by the Army Corp. of Engineers.
deconstruct - not demolish
deconstruction allows for the recovery of mechanical
systems, building materials and other items as listed
above that can be reused. While more time-consuming,
it does have the potential to save money and resources.
By Karen Weinsheimer.
Statistics and information gathered from: Zero
Waste America, 1998 State of the Nation’s Waste Report, Army Corp
of Engineers Selection of Methods for the Reduction, Reuse and
Recycling of Demolition Waste, and INFORM Community Waste
Prevention Toolkit: Construction & Demolition Fact Sheet. |
