By Dan Costello

It may seem unusual to you that someone in the demolition industry is leading the discussion on the C&D-derived wood recycling forum of our summit—but when you think of it, as a demolition contractor, I face, on a daily basis, the D portion of C&D material. I must find ways to properly handle, reuse and dispose of the components of the buildings which we dismantle. We obviously stay in very close contact with all recycling and C&D process facilities in the region. The success of our business relies upon our ability to maximize the reuse and recycling potential of every building we dismantle.

Our regional processing facilities provide economical and efficient outlets for material recycling and disposition.  Massachusetts set the standard for these facilities during the lead up to our disposal ban and since implementation of that ban, through the tireless efforts of Jim McQuade who lead us, reluctantly at times, through quite a journey. 

In my participation on national boards for the NDA and the CMRA, people from other parts of the country continue to look to Massachusetts as a leading force in the country for recycling policies. Other parts of the country have since followed our initiatives to develop vibrant C&D recycling operations. I look to Minnesota, Virginia, Florida, California, Connecticut, New Jersey, Maine, and even Ohio, to see expansion of the model started here. Facilities in these states all seem to have one thing in common. That is, there is a ready, dependable market available for their wood products as bio-mass fuel. Outlets for wood is the keystone upon which this industry sits.

We are fortunate in this region to have a great relationship between our processing facilities and consumers at Tafisa in Quebec which use C&D wood chips in particle board manufacturing. Sylvain Martel has spent great time and effort to develop this unique application for a C&D-derived product. The Kruger facility in Quebec also consumes great quantities of C&D-derived fines in its bio-mass plant.

Eric Dumond from Boralex also deserves recognition and appreciation for his participation in our process from the early days and his continued commitment to C&D wood as a bio-mass fuel in Maine.

Chip Millich from Sappi Paper also has been a pioneer in developing a sustainable market for the wood products we manufacture in Massachusetts and New Hampshire for bio-mass fuel in Maine.

Without the demand of these consumers for our wood products, our C&D processing infrastructure would collapse. 

Massachusetts and New Hampshire have not allowed development of industry that would rely on the C&D-derived wood products for industrial or power generation uses through legislative bans or administrative delay tactics. These roadblocks, particularly the moratorium placed on issuance of the permit for Palmer Renewable Energy, have sent shock waves through the recycling industry and financial capital markets.

We need the state to provide clear policy and regulations that can be relied upon by the recycling industry—let’s have strict and predictable standards so we can expect that industry will be attracted to Mas-sachusetts; and the financial capital markets who need long term,  sustainable economic reliability before investing in new Mas-sachusetts industry.

The C&D recycling industry stands firmly behind full implementation of the Massachusetts C&D policy. Massachusetts has been at the leading edge of emission controls, requiring state-of-the-art control technologies. We expect Massachusetts to continue this leadership role—requiring BACT (Best Available Control Technologies) for bio-fuel plants.

We want to be the primary provider of clean, renewable fuels for the energy needs of our future. We must, together, complete the compact which was undertaken. That was:
•    To develop an infrastructure that would allow a disposal ban to be implemented in Massachusetts;
•    Extracting those banned products from the waste stream; and
•    Finding and maintaining sustainable outlets for the products produced by the C&D processors.

In my polling of the industry in preparation for this speech, I found great frustration at every level. The economic climate has hit everyone with:
•    Reduced volume of material;
•    Greatly under utilized plants;
•    Financial scrutiny to justify our existence;
•    Jobs are being lost;
•    Plants are running reduced shifts; and
•    Transportation and the corresponding increased emissions of travel to distant markets represent higher costs on lower volume.

It is no secret there is bickering and finger-pointing in the ranks. This is attributable to a slow economy, lack of clarity in regulations, and mostly, I think, lack of sufficient local infrastructure to allow the absorption of the output of our processing plants.

If we, together, can establish Mas-sachusetts as the cutting edge home to clean, sustainable technology using locally-derived and recycled products, we will complete the vision we imagined at the beginning of our efforts to create our C&D processing industry. The rest of the country can and will look upon us again with the same respect it did when we initiated our C&D bans. Let us not allow our efforts to wither on the vine from lack of understanding, support and conviction.

We want to engage the commissioner, secretary, and the governor with all levels of C&D processors, recyclers and energy producers to ensure that Massachusetts continues to be at the forefront of increased recycling, that we have tough emission standards, create green energy and jobs.

Dan Costello is president of Costello Dismantling, Middleboro, Mass., and a member of the CMRA board of directors. He can be reached at 508-946-0880.