We registered for this credit for one than one project under the thought that it would be easy to achieve. We were right...for one of the projects. However, because the credit follows the requirements as set forth in LEEDv4, we were not able to count drywall that was diverted, but used as daily landfill cover. Without the inclusion of the diverted drywall, one of our projects did not meet the requirement of three or more steams contributing to 50% diversion.
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Vince Briones
Sustainable Design Manager15 thumbs up
March 21, 2014 - 4:01 pm
Agreed Laura,
We have found this credit to be readily attainable in most urban settings as long as a project will have a variety of recyclable materials. You are also correct that access to recycling drywall makes a big difference in most projects given how common it is in most projects' waste streams. Just finished a relatively small tenant office renovation project in Orlando that benefited from a comingled service provider that fortunately does recycle numerous material types including clean/uncontaminated drywall (recycled for end-uses other than landfill ADC).
However, we have also had other projects struggle with this due to limited regional recycling services available, some in rural locations but some in surprisingly urban areas without access to recycling of materials like drywall or wood. In those cases, the team has had to consider whether its feasible or even "sustainable" to pay extreme freight costs to transport heavy waste materials significant distances to be processed for recycling.
Vince Briones
Sustainable Design Manager15 thumbs up
March 21, 2014 - 4:07 pm
I will further note that there are sometime logistics involved that create barriers to accomplishing this even by a capable construction team. In one of our more rural projects that needed to transport waste a great distance for any chance of an overall 50% project waste diversion rate, the GC was advised that the waste provider (company) managing the MRF recycling center in the nearest city would not accept dumpsters from another hauler due to "liability" issues.
Joanna Switzer
Sustainability Project ManagerAtkins
59 thumbs up
April 28, 2014 - 1:49 pm
Agreed,
Was recently surprised to have a tenant (LEED-CI) project reach only 65% diversion in spite of being in the greater Miami urban area with robust comingled / off-site separation resources used. In this case a lack of drywall recycling options, along with other misc non-recyclable waste material types, was an obstacle to achieving 75%+ diversion.
Joanna Switzer
Sustainability Project ManagerAtkins
59 thumbs up
April 9, 2015 - 5:57 am
Alternately, we just completed another project outside the Miami metro area that achieved a nearly 95% diversion rate. The primary difference is this project is a LEED-Core and shell with only limited interior improvements. Likewise, there was no notable demolition required. Both of these factors minimized the miscellaneous non-recyclable materials resulting from the project work. Coupling that with robust comingled recycling resources available in the region ultimately resulted in a very high diversion rate.