Richard A. Ludt Waste Management Administrator Interior Removal Specialist, Inc. LEED ® AP

1. C&D does not stand for Concrete and Dirt:The truth behind the diversion in the City of Los AngelesCRRA CARBONOPOLYAugust 4th, San Francisco, CA Richard A. Ludt Waste Management Administrator Interior Removal Specialist, Inc. LEED® AP

2. Interior Removal Specialist, Inc. • Interior demolition contractor since 1994 • Began hauling own debris in 1998 • Received California State certification as C&D Processor in 2003 • Received Full Solid Waste Permit in February 2008 • Demolished over 11,000,000 square feet of commercial interior space in 2006 • Produced 31,942.76 tons of debris • Recycled 23,318.2 tons (73%) • Had to look at diversion differently due to waste stream

3. Award winning diversion brings interesting questions • GEELA in 2006 • SWANA Gold and Silver in 2006 • WRAP of the Year in 2006 • CRRA Gold in 2006 • ISWA Innovation Award in 2007 • Why did we win? • What are we doing differently?

4. Commercial Interior demolition vs. New Construction demolition • Construction and demolition debris can and should be broken down to two or three separate waste streams • Full building demolition creates a completely different waste stream than tenant improvement or CI debris • CI Debris is lighter and harder to separate than full building demolition debris • Road and Bridge work could be a category in itself, consisting of strictly concrete, asphalt, and metals

5. Hard vs. Soft demolition Full building demolition debris Commercial Interior demolition debris

6. Largest Weight Factors New ConstructionDemolition Commercial Interior Demolition • Most weight comes from concrete, steel, wood, dirt • Traditional demolition waste stream • Easily diverted • Most weight comes from gypsum wallboard, metal, plastic laminate cabinetry, particle board, and carpet • Many non-traditional diversion items • Fewer markets

7. Heaviest materials, hard vs. soft demolition Hard demo Soft demo

8. Difficulties in diversion in CI projects • Donation or sale of usable materials and furniture difficult if material is not removed before demolition, storage for these materials can be problematic • Ceiling tile recycling difficult if material is not saved on jobsite at time of demolition • Carpet recycling is expensive in Southern California due to cost and distance to recyclers • Plastic laminate cabinets and particle board furniture is not compostable or mulchable.

9. Donation possibilities

10. Facility Averages • The accepted form of computing a diversion rate is to use a facility average • Facility Average is computed as total tons inbound minus tons sent to landfill equals diversion rate • Facilities do not track hard vs. soft demolition loads • Facilities often issue receipts that say “Mixed C&D Debris, recycled --%” without breaking down materials • Without material breakdown, no real accounting can be achieved

11. Los Angeles Averages • City of Los Angeles produced over 800,000 tons of C&D debris in 2006 • Metals, wood, inerts, and cardboard accounted for nearly 33% of all incoming materials • Approximately 35 % of all incoming debris was sent to landfill • This only leaves 32% of other materials to be accounted for

12. Commercial Interior Demolition recycled material percentages* • Drywall- 25.82% • Metals- 14.44% • Wood- 12.69% (Only 2% of this material is dimensional lumber, the remaining 98% is particle board and plastic laminate cabinetry, traditionally not captured by C&D facilities) • Concrete- 8.57% • Carpet- 6.96% • Ceiling Tile- 3.82% • Cardboard- 1.24% • Total- 73.81% • *By weight, based on tonnage from 2006, Interior Removal Specialist, Inc. yard

13. Hard to recycle materials

14. Actual diversion at traditional facilities • Metal, wood, inerts and cardboard account for about 26.25% of CI demolition loads by weight • Inerts, wood, and metals account for 75% to 90% of full building demolition loads by weight • Some C&D Facilities recycle the drywall and carpet that come into the facilities in clean source separated loads • Mixed CI loads at many facilities are only sorted for the metals, cardboard, and whatever dimensional lumber they can recover, meaning that mixed CI loads are generally recycled at a rate of far less than 50%, yet are given the Facility Average diversion rate

15. Commonly recycled materials

16. What are we really burying? The Toxic 20% • When inerts are taken out of the waste stream, only the organic, toxic and potentially toxic are left • When buried in large quantities gypsum wallboard produces greenhouse gasses • Particle board contains adhesives and chemicals that contribute to landfill leachate • Carpet and plastics may stay in landfills for centuries to come • Organics create methane gas, 23 times more harmful than Carbon Dioxide

17. How did this come to be? • Large waste haulers approached C&D as a waste stream, not a diversion opportunity • When diversion became mandatory, processors simply went after the low hanging fruit • Inerts were the easiest and most plentiful materials by weight • Most people not in the waste industry are not familiar with the actual mechanics of C&D diversion and do not understand the failure of facility averages in tracking actual diversion for CI projects

18. What do we do? • Educate ourselves • Source separate to the greatest extent possible • Salvage as much as possible for future sale or donation • Find out where your hauler will be taking the debris • Investigate what that facility is actually taking out of the waste stream • Try to find your own outlets for those materials that are not being addressed

19. Thank you. Richard A. Ludt Waste Management Administrator LEED® AP Interior Removal Specialist, Inc. richard@irsdemo.com