“We don’t just recycle your C and D, we also save you money.” —Mark lennon

ECYCLING WALLBOARD AND WOOD, concrete and conduits, shingles, slate, and a host of other byproducts of demolition and renovation makes perfect sense to Mark Lennon. Of course, Lennon is a principal with the Institutional Recycling Network, the Concord, New Hampshire–based cooperative that refers to itself as the most experienced recycler of construction and demolition (C and D) wastes in the Northeast, and so he’s expected to be a true believer.

While Lennon can make a good case for how and why institutions benefit from IRN’s services, the bottom line, he understands, is still the bottom line.

“We don’t just recycle your C and D, we also save you money,” Lennon said. “Our whole reason for existence as a company is to prove that doing right by the environment can also be the right thing economically for institutions and for contractors and owners.

“If it didn’t work economically, we wouldn’t have gotten this far.”

And far they’ve come in the half dozen or so years since they got their start setting up basic recycling plans for institutions around New England.
From helping a handful of institutions deal with recycling piles of paper, dented desks, fluorescent lights, and outdated computers, IRN has grown into an industry leader that recycles anything and everything from the pavement in front of a building to the roof that tops it off for upwards of 130 institutions.

“Schools pointed out to us that ‘green’ building, the LEED program (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design), and sustainable building were becoming important to their campuses,” Lennon said. “They asked us if we could recycle construction waste and so we looked into it. First we found that we could recycle wood and metal, then we found that we could recycle brick and concrete, and then we discovered markets for shingles and other roofing materials.”

“I don’t think the general public would believe how much less expensive it is to recycle many things than it is to throw them away.”

According to Lennon, concrete block can be recycled for about one-tenth the cost of throwing it away. Wood can be recycled for one-third the cost of dumping it, and wallboard for approximately half the cost of tossing it. “I don’t think the general public would believe how much less expensive it is to recycle many things than it is to throw them away,” Lennon said.

IRN’s calling is to maximize the savings while minimizing the hassle of recycling construction debris onsite. According to Lennon, the most effective way to accomplish this is to separate waste materials into dumpsters designated for wood, for metal, and for concrete block as they are being removed from the building. If those materials are sent to a mixed debris processor together, Lennon said, it might cost $70 per ton to separate them. If the separation is done on site, not only will there be a check for the recycled metal, but the cost of recycling the rest could be reduced to $10 a ton.

“There is always a need for somebody to help orchestrate the process onsite, and that’s where we come in,” Lennon said. “It’s not terribly difficult but it requires some additional thought that lies outside of the contractor’s traditional role on a job site. What we do is optimize the financial benefits of recycling for the contractor without getting in the way.”

When called in for a job IRN develops a four-part strategy that features:

• The overall waste management plan—describing what is being recycled and where
• Training, troubleshooting, and feedback for supervisors and subcontractors;
• Management of the implementation of the waste management plan to make sure dumpsters go where they should and that they are used properly; and
• Documentation and waste slips from the different recycling markets, as well as savings calculations for LEED and other types of certification.

The effort is paying off. By IRN’s estimation, it recycled 99.1 percent of the materials it handled during Harvard University’s Radcliffe Center for Advanced Education Schlesinger Library renovation. In Vermont Law School’s Debevoise Hall renovation project it recycled 45 tons of metal, 350 tons of concrete, 111 tons of wood, 35 tons of wallboard and 13 tons of asphalt. Half of a total of 30 tons of mixed debris was recycled.

That’s the big picture. The little picture is meaningful as well.

“The one thing that surprised us the most with this is how supportive the guys on the site always are,” said Lennon. “And I say ‘always’ without qualification because once you get onsite and start talking to the workers themselves about what they are doing they really jump on board.

“Almost everyone is recycling at home and a lot of guys have told us in so many words that it’s always sort of nagged at them that they are saving a few sheets of construction paper that their kids are using on a school project, but when they go to work they are throwing away tons and tons and tons of stuff every day. They recognize that as wrong.”

Wrong, as it turns out, and costly.