Category Archives: Waste News

Seven alternative bricks made of reclaimed waste and biomaterials

Dezeen Awards sustainable

At 90 per cent, the K-Briq offers “the highest recycled content of any brick” currently on the market.

To tackle these problems, brick manufacturers and researchers are increasingly looking at how to make use of local waste materials to create masonry units, as well as reverting to traditional methods of sun-drying to cut out the need for firing.

Source: Seven alternative bricks made of reclaimed waste and biomaterials

BUILDING A BETTER WORLD Eliminating Unnecessary PFAS in Building Materials – The Green Science Policy Institute

Green Science Policy Institute - Crunchbase Company Profile & Funding

End of life disposal of building materials may also lead
to environmental emissions of PFAS. Large amounts
of waste building materials are disposed of in municipal solid waste and construction and demolition landfills, and leachate from both types of landfills contains
PFAS.255 PFAS-containing building products may also
be sent to municipal solid waste incinerators, which
have the potential to release PFAS emissions into air.

End-of-life plan urged for wind turbines – Australian Associated Press

Silverton Wind Farm turbines seen through cemetery tombstones

Australia has to come up with an end-of-life plan for used wind turbines, says a leading academic. Image by Mick Tsikas/AAP PHOTOS

“It is not realistic to expect a market-based recycling solution to emerge, so policymakers need to step in now and plan what we’re going to do with all these blades that will come offline in the next few years.”

Source: End-of-life plan urged for wind turbines – Australian Associated Press

Iconic St. Scholastica building in Fort Smith to be demolished – Talk Business & Politics

While the former monastery is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, that does not prohibit the building from being demolished. According to information on the National Register of Historic Places website. Owners’ rights do not change when the property is listed on the register.

Source: Iconic St. Scholastica building in Fort Smith to be demolished – Talk Business & Politics

Plastic-eating Enzyme Could Eliminate Billions of Tons of Landfill Waste – UT News

plastic waste1400

“This work really demonstrates the power of bringing together different disciplines, from synthetic biology to chemical engineering to artificial intelligence,” said Andrew Ellington, professor in the Center for Systems and Synthetic Biology whose team led the development of the machine learning model.

Source: Plastic-eating Enzyme Could Eliminate Billions of Tons of Landfill Waste – UT News

These scientists want to solve the solar e-waste crisis – The Verge

Tang Dehong / Costfoto/Future Publishing via Getty Images

If all goes well, a cleaner and more cost-effective solar recycling process could reach the market right as the first wave of solar panels hits the waste stream. “As we’re ramping up clean energy manufacturing, producing more clean energy tech, thinking about recycling at the end of life becomes even more important,” says Diana Bauer, acting deputy director of the Advanced Manufacturing Office at DOE.

Source: These scientists want to solve the solar e-waste crisis – The Verge

Scientists use sunlight and modified sawdust to reversibly capture carbon dioxide

Scientists use sunlight and modified sawdust to reversibly capture carbon dioxide

How the sunlight-controlled CO2 separation installation works. Credit: Shiming Zhang, Renmin University of China.

In a study published in the journal Green Energy & Environment, a group of researchers from Renmin University of China propose a new method to capture CO2 using sunlight as the energy source and modified sawdust as the CO2 absorbent

Source: Scientists use sunlight and modified sawdust to reversibly capture carbon dioxide

Concrete Doesn’t Have to Be an Ecological Nightmare

Clockwise from upper left: the Pantheon in Rome; Boston City Hall; Saarinen’s TWA terminal at JFK airport; Zaha Hadid’s Sheikh Zayed Bridge in Dubai. Photo: Getty Images

Today, cooking one ton of cement yields nearly a ton of CO2, and concrete plants pump out nearly 8 percent of the world’s carbon emissions. Since an ever-growing population can’t wean itself from its primary building material, warding off climate change is going to require a cleaner way to make it.

Source: Concrete Doesn’t Have to Be an Ecological Nightmare

Iqaluit’s water crisis unveils a bigger problem: There’s no recycling in the Arctic  | Canada’s National Observer: News & Analysis

Residents of Iqaluit, the capital city of Nunavut, have been without clean drinking water since last week. Photo by Timothy Neesam / Flickr (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

“Unlike most southern Canadians, we have faced chronic, large, and growing municipal infrastructure gaps for decades,” wrote Natan Obed, president of the Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami (ITK), an organization representing Inuit in Canada, in a forward to the report. “We currently have little to no direct decision-making involvement in the recycling, reduction, or diversion of the paper, cardboard, plastics, hazardous materials, and e-waste filling our landfills, threatening our freshwater supplies and locally harve

Source: Iqaluit’s water crisis unveils a bigger problem: There’s no recycling in the Arctic  | Canada’s National Observer: News & Analysis

WindEurope CEO visits German cement plant that’s running on blade waste | WindEurope

On 4 October WindEurope CEO Giles Dickson visited Holcim’s Lägerdorf plant in Germany, together with Claudia Grotz of Siemens Gamesa and Chair of WindEurope’s Sustainability Working Group. They met the Geocycle team who are using wind turbines blade waste to generate heat and ash to help make cement. It’s currently the only such cement plant in Europe that’s using blade waste.

The organic content of blade waste is recovered as thermal energy while the mineral fraction of the waste is integrated as ash in the matrix of the cement clinker the plant produces.  This reduces the carbon footprint of cement production and makes it more resource efficient.  This is because the blade waste substitutes (partially) for fossil fuels in the incineration process and for other materials in the clinker production process.  One tonne of blade waste reduces CO2 emissions by 110 kg and saves 461 kg of raw materials.

Source: WindEurope CEO visits German cement plant that’s running on blade waste | WindEurope

A Ukrainian Oligarch Bought a Midwestern Factory and Let it Rot. What Was Really Going On? – POLITICO

A photo of downtown Harvard, Illinois, taken on July 11, 2009.

The story of Harvard suggests that lax U.S. laws around shell companies and real-estate purchases, in addition to a broader lack of regulatory oversight, may be putting America’s heartland in the crosshairs of elites like Kolomoisky. It’s a reality of global corruption that U.S. lawmakers are only just starting to grapple with: As money-launderers and illicit financiers hide their money in the American Midwest, they’ve become part of the story of the decline of small-town, blue-collar America.

Source: A Ukrainian Oligarch Bought a Midwestern Factory and Let it Rot. What Was Really Going On? – POLITICO

Repurposing Single-Use Products in the Construction Industry | INN

According to the US Environmental Protection Agency, approximately 11 million tons of asphalt roofing shingles are disposed of each year, contributing to over a million tons of waste produced by the roofing industry and companies are increasingly looking for methods to both offset their carbon footprint from re-using single-use products and find environmentally-friendly sourced products for their businesses. Landfills across North America are already over-crowded. Single-use asphalt shingles do not biodegrade or decompose and will sit in landfills for hundreds of years.

Source: Repurposing Single-Use Products in the Construction Industry | INN

Local hazards grow as Americans churn out more garbage, United States News & Top Stories – The Straits Times

More than 90 per cent of the 230,000 tons of construction waste ReEnergy accepted in 2019 came from out-of-state, according to its annual report. After processing, ReEnergy said it sent 93 per cent of the imported trash to the Juniper Ridge landfill, which while owned by the state is operated by a private company, New England Waste Service of Maine, a subsidiary of Casella Waste Systems. Casella collects a “tipping fee” from ReEnergy for taking its waste. Fees for construction and demolition debris vary, but range from US$33 to US$95 per ton, according to the state’s environmental agency.

Source: Local hazards grow as Americans churn out more garbage, United States News & Top Stories – The Straits Times

Brookhaven residents: We don’t want to become ‘garbage capital’ | Newsday

Gershow Recycling Corp. is asking Brookhaven Town for

Gershow Recycling Corp. is asking Brookhaven Town for approvals to build a waste transfer station near Long Island Rail Road tracks. Credit: Barry Sloan

“Any sustainable waste plan must include efforts to actually bring down waste,” said Abena Asare of Brookhaven hamlet, a member of the Brookhaven Landfill Action & Remediation Group. The community group supports alternatives to landfills that they say disproportionately are sited in minority and low-income communities.

Source: Brookhaven residents: We don’t want to become ‘garbage capital’ | Newsday

3D printed house: Builders say the method will reduce new home construction costs – CNN

SQ4D's completed proof of concept and demo home. SQ4D says it is the world's largest permitted 3D printed home at 1,900 square feet.

SQ4D’s completed proof of concept and demo home. SQ4D says it is the world’s largest permitted 3D printed home at 1,900 square feet.

“The cost of construction is 50% cheaper than the cost of comparable newly-constructed homes in Riverhead, New York, and 10 times faster,” said Stephen King, the Zillow Premier agent who has the 3D house listing. The 3D printed house will include 1,407 square feet of living space and will be built with concrete.

Source: 3D printed house: Builders say the method will reduce new home construction costs – CNN

Mann Case Sets Precedent For Building Material Reuse Tax Charitable Valuation

Recycling icon on a pile of red bricks from a construction site, sort and recycle waste building materials

be responsible and protect ecological environment, GETTY

If you are donating a “whole house” the house will be relocated off your property. Otherwise you are donating pieces of the house. Material destroyed in the deconstruction is not part of what you get credit for in valuing your deduction.

Source: Mann Case Sets Precedent For Building Material Reuse Tax Charitable Valuation

Colorado grant opportunities provide funding for recycling projects – Construction & Demolition Recycling

Colorado grant opportunities provide funding for recycling projects

This option focuses on reduction and diversion of construction and demolition waste, including gypsum wallboard, treated wood, reclaimed asphalt shingles, carpet tiles and construction plastics. The RFA has more information.

Source: Colorado grant opportunities provide funding for recycling projects – Construction & Demolition Recycling

National circular economy hub to lead way in UK bid to create a sustainable future | Mirage News

“By effecting a step change in how we use and reuse resources, the move to a circular economy will deliver major environmental and economic benefits and is an essential element of making net zero a reality.”

Source: National circular economy hub to lead way in UK bid to create a sustainable future | Mirage News

How to reuse or recycle Christmas trees in Philadelphia – WHYY

Christmas trees put out in the trash in Philadelphia’s Port Richmond neighborhood. (Kimberly Paynter/WHYY)

Christmas trees put out in the trash in Philadelphia’s Port Richmond neighborhood. (Kimberly Paynter/WHYY)

“By recycling them and returning them to the earth, we reduce our waste costs and create a valuable resource,” he said.Options include composting your tree, recycling it into chips, feeding the green to goats, turning it into a barrier to protect dunes from erosion, or even cooking, using pine needles like herbs.

Source: How to reuse or recycle Christmas trees in Philadelphia – WHYY

World’s First Plane – Made & Powered By Hemp – Is 10 Times Stronger Than Steel

Hemp is lighter than traditional aerospace materials (such as aluminium and fiberglass) and therefore requires a lot less fuel to reach a high altitude. Most importantly, hemp is non-toxic, sustainable, requires way less water and land to grow than cotton, and compared to steel or carbon fibre, has almost no environmental impact.

Source: World’s First Plane – Made & Powered By Hemp – Is 10 Times Stronger Than Steel

Aspen City Council puts its money where its mouth is for waste diversion program | News | aspendailynews.com

Recycling center

Aspen City Council has committed funding for a comprehensive waste management plan to provide incentives for recyclable and compostable materials to be diverted from the landfill.

She also told the council that unlike other communities that may benefit from a public-private warehouse that could give construction materials a new life, the local market is not in the mood for second-hand materials. “The concept of taking someone else’s used building materials and using it in a new construction project, the audience for that is limited,” Chapman said.

Source: Aspen City Council puts its money where its mouth is for waste diversion program | News | aspendailynews.com

Angry Sheffield man cheered on as he stages camp chair protest in middle of construction site – YorkshireLive

Conor set up a camping chair as part of a peaceful protest (Image: Jake Loader)

Demolition work at the University of Sheffield’s Social Sciences building was brought to a halt for two hours after a resident sat in a camping chair on the site in protest against the “deafening” noise levels.

Source: Angry Sheffield man cheered on as he stages camp chair protest in middle of construction site – YorkshireLive

‘I say go for it’: Froggy’s widow won’t stand in the way of the building’s demolition | Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Christian Snyder / Post-Gazette

John Jackson, senior vice president of the Cushman & Wakefield/Grant Street Associates real estate firm, also testified that reusing the buildings for office and commercial purposes didn’t make sense financially.

Source: ‘I say go for it’: Froggy’s widow won’t stand in the way of the building’s demolition | Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

“Green” recyclable rubber gives new life to single-use building materials

Researchers have developed a new type of rubber polymer that can be combined with various waste materials and repeatedly recycled

Researchers have developed a new type of rubber polymer that can be combined with various waste materials and repeatedly recycledfranckito/Depositphotos

This allows the material to be shaped into tubing, coatings, bumpers, insulation, and many other things you’d normally find made of rubber. But the important thing is that this isn’t the end of the story. Once these products have worn out or are no longer needed, they aren’t just thrown away – the rubber can be ground up into powder, placed back into a mold, and recycled into something new.

Source: “Green” recyclable rubber gives new life to single-use building materials

Demolition of Building Underway Despite Neighborhood Opposition – ColumbusUnderground.com

Demolition of Building Underway Despite Neighborhood Opposition

The building on May 7, when demolition had begun on the rear addition. Photos by Brent Warren.

“We believe value should be placed on the fact that it is the last of the original grand homes and apartments that originally stood on 18th St.,” the letter reads. “We’ve supported efforts to demolish buildings for the child care center expansion but do not believe a surface parking lot is reasonable justification to entirely erase our history.”

Source: Demolition of Building Underway Despite Neighborhood Opposition – ColumbusUnderground.com

Construction Causes Major Pollution. Here’s How We Can Build Better. | HuffPost

Concrete mixing machines line up at the construction site for high-rise buildings on April 10 in Kolkata, India.

HINDUSTAN TIMES VIA GETTY IMAGES
Concrete mixing machines line up at the construction site for high-rise buildings on April 10 in Kolkata, India.

The construction industry — from the mining and smelting of raw materials to dealing with the waste from demolished structures — has a huge environmental footprint that is often overlooked. It produces 11% of global greenhouse gas emissions. That’s a staggeringly high number, four times the emissions of the whole aviation sector.

Source: Construction Causes Major Pollution. Here’s How We Can Build Better. | HuffPost

Once demolition permit is sought, it may be too late to stop wrecking ball – The Buffalo News

A demolition crew tore down 184 W. Utica St. on Feb. 27. The green light by the city came two days after the Buffalo Preservation Board voted unanimously to landmark the 1907 building designed by Albert Schallmo, an architect who worked on the acclaimed Blessed Trinity Church on the East Side. (John Hickey/Buffalo News)

A demolition crew tore down 184 W. Utica St. on Feb. 27. The green light by the city came two days after the Buffalo Preservation Board voted unanimously to landmark the 1907 building designed by Albert Schallmo, an architect who worked on the acclaimed Blessed Trinity Church on the East Side. (John Hickey/Buffalo News)

“The irony here is while the demolition was happening on West Utica, on the front page of the Buffalo paper that day was a quote from director Guillermo Del Toro saying that the whole reason he selected Buffalo to film ‘Nightmare Alley’ was because of the quality of the architecture in our city,” Howard said.

Source: Once demolition permit is sought, it may be too late to stop wrecking ball – The Buffalo News

‘No-waste’ Japanese village is a peek into carbon-neutral future | World news | The Guardian

Household waste in Kamikatsu must be sorted into no fewer than 45 categories

Household waste in Kamikatsu must be sorted into no fewer than 45 categories. Photograph: Kazuhiro Nogi/AFP via Getty Images

Household waste must be separated into no fewer than 45 categories, before being taken to a collection centre where volunteers ensure items go into the correct bin, occasionally issuing polite reminders to anyone who forgets to take the lid and label off a plastic bottle or remove nails from a plank of wood.

Source: ‘No-waste’ Japanese village is a peek into carbon-neutral future | World news | The Guardian

Here’s how we can recycle more buildings | CityMetric

Image: author provided.

Advanced sensors and AI that can detect quickly and determine accurately what can be used among CDW and efficient robotic sorting could aid circular construction by vastly improving the recycling of a wide range of materials. The focus should be on the smart dismantling of buildings and ways of optimising cost-effective processes.

Source: Here’s how we can recycle more buildings | CityMetric

In My Opinion: Old forests, not clearcuts, are climate solutions – By Samantha Krop – The Register-Guard – Eugene, OR

Put simply, logging is not a carbon solution. All told, the logging industry is the largest fossil fuel emitter in our state. In 2016, the Oregon Global Warming Commission reported that the wood products sector itself contributed 50% more pollution than the transportation and energy sector combined.

Source: In My Opinion: Old forests, not clearcuts, are climate solutions – Opinion – The Register-Guard – Eugene, OR

Embedawatt: Valuing What We Have – – The Adirondack Almanack

Medium Sized House Energy Chart Courtesy of Jerry Jenkins

Illustrations: Above, the symbol for the Embedawatt, as envisioned by AARCH staff; and below a Medium Sized House Energy Chart courtesy of Jerry Jenkins (from Climate Change in the Adirondacks).

Assuming the new house is more energy efficient than an existing house, it still takes an average of 40 years for an energy efficient new house to recover the energy and carbon expended in the construction of the house (Empty Homes Agency, 2008).

Source: Embedawatt: Valuing What We Have – – The Adirondack Almanack