The Landfill Is Our Last Resort
By Ted Reiff
In our business, reuse and recycling are two separate things.
Reuse means to use an item again in its existing form. A door
is reused as a door, a window as a window, a sink as a sink. Sure,
an old sink may be used as a planter, or a stained glass window
hung on the wall as art, but the form doesn't change.
When an item is recycled, its form is changed. Often the new product
bears no resemblance to the original—like the springy floor
of the San Diego Zoo's new orangutan exhibit that looks like garden
compost, but is actually shredded tires. Similarly, piles of soft
drink cans become aluminum window frames and concrete foundations
are transformed into base rock for sidewalks and driveways.
TRP’s first choice is to put building materials destined
for the landfill to reuse in their present state. However, some
items cannot be reused, like the concrete foundations mentioned
above. The second choice is to recycle the material into something
valuable. We consistently recycle concrete, asphalt, untreated
lumber too short to be reused, and all ferrous and nonferrous
metals, as well as other materials..
But what do we do with painted drywall, composite shingles, plaster
and stucco? Unfortunately, these materials go to the landfill.
Not many years ago, concrete was also a throwaway, but due to
technology, increased costs of transportation and disposal, and
the continuing need of base rock for roads, driveways, and parking
lots, it became more lucrative to grind up concrete, asphalt and
porcelain toilets and sell the material as a substitute for gravel,
which needed to be mined from quarries. Today every city or metropolitan
area of any size has a concrete crushing facility that not only
takes loads of concrete at one-tenth of the cost of the local
landfill, but also provides "rock" in various sizes
for local construction projects at a cheaper price than trucking
the same type of material from a distant quarry.
Present attempts to recycle asphalt and composite shingles are
not yet competitive due to the expensive operations involved.
In time, and with parallel increases in disposal costs,
shrinking landfill space, and improved technology, these
items will also be kept from our landfills.
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