Understand that we need at least five materials to be targeted for diversion. For our project, all C&D waste will be commingled and sent to the recycling facility for sorting and recycling. Only metal (steel, rebar, AC ducting), paper and corrugated paper (minimum such as site office work and material wrapping cover), plastic (minimum such as bottle and wiring conduit), glass (minimum such as broken glazing or bottle) will be separated on site for donation or recycling. Are we qualify for the 5 material streams which are 1. Commingled C&D waste, 2. Metal, 3. Paper, 4. Plastic, 5. Glass to meet with the prerequisite as the volume of other 4 material streams are seem less compared to the commingled C&D waste stream. Please advise. Thank you.
You rely on LEEDuser. Can we rely on you?
LEEDuser is supported by our premium members, not by advertisers.
Go premium for
RETIRED
LEEDuser Expert
623 thumbs up
August 30, 2018 - 3:03 pm
Hi - I have a couple of questions for you with some thoughts:
If you are just going for the prerequisite, I think you should be fine since there is no threshold to hit - although you will need to approximate a percentage of the overall waste that these materials represent.
The Reference Guide states for the associated credit: "As a best practice, a material stream should constitute at least 5% (by weight or volume) of total diverted materials." I can't imagine paper, plastic, and glass being 5% of the total diverted materials and this may be problematic if you are going for the credit.
I hope the MR TAG will look at this credit for LEED v4.1 in relation to the concerns raised about commingled waste being a single stream unless project specific. The single stream issue makes complying with the prerequisite's five material streams requirement problematic.
Chia WL
August 31, 2018 - 12:02 pm
Hi Michelle, thanks for the explanation. The project will most likely go for MRc5 Option 2: Reduction of total material waste because in our country, it is quite a challenging task to require project specific from the facility. All commingled waste sent to the facility site will be centralized at one location before they do the segregation, means that there is no way to track the waste by project specific. Furthermore there is no regulation to enforce or regulate the facility, therefore average recycling rate will only be shared by the facility's own will. I had read some of your comments and understand that the MRp2 is just to outline 5 "targeted" waste stream in the CWM plan. However it is still remained unclear whether providing only 3 or 4 waste stream (Option 1) or 0 waste stream (neither the project able to provide project specific % or average recycling rate as evidence, Option 2) is acceptable for complying MRp2. The most critical issue in my opinion is that MRp2 is marked as Construction Credit, any discrepancy or disagreement from LEED on our own interpretation might fail the certification because the review or feedback from LEED are seem to be too late, at that stage the project had been completed and no more changes can be made. And we cannot choose to drop the credit if we not able to provide the required document because it is a prerequisite credit.
P.S. If 5 "targeted" waste stream is really mean to be "implemented" and 5% of total waste is the requirement to qualify as a single waste stream, in some of the country that still very fall behind on the recycling sector like us, it will be a huge step to cross because the commingled method is very common in city area but yet minimum regulation is implemented to control and less transparent in the recycling facility.
RETIRED
LEEDuser Expert
623 thumbs up
September 6, 2018 - 9:33 pm
Hi - I understand your situation and this is a new prerequisite for everyone. That said, USGBC strives to help teams succeed with prerequisites. In light of the market implementation and technical problems with LEED v4, USGBC is trying to resolve them with LEED v4.1. The requirement to track 5 materials for this prerequisite but only report 3-4 (Option 1) or 0 (Option 2) in the credit is definite problem.
In the meantime, I would say that you are doing the right thing by attempting to identify 5 materials that are targeted for diversion. That is what the prerequisite requires. If you want to get a more definitive answer from USGBC, I can offer two choices: You could attempt to ask a question via https://www.usgbc.org/contactus and pick Certification Question. Then pick LEED v4 as the Category and fill in your project information. (LEED v4 projects are supposed to have access to LEED Coaches for technical issues - https://www.usgbc.org/articles/leed-link-support-your-leed-v4-project). The other choice has a cost associated ($220) and that would be ask a Project CIR/LEED Interpretation via LEED Online. Click the Interpretations button after logging in.
If you get an answer in either venue, PLEASE post the results here so others can learn too. Good luck!