The Center for Sustainable Community Solutions (CSCS) at SyracuseCoE has received an award through the Environmental Investment Program at Empire State Development to develop a program dedicated to promoting, supporting and addressing barriers to the growth of construction and demolition (C&D) recycling in NY. The new program will be housed at SyracuseCoE and led by Mark Lichtenstein, executive director of the SyracuseCoE Center for Sustainable Community Solutions.
The program will be committed to divert 7,672 tons of C&D materials from disposal to recycling and generate more than $650,000 of associated avoided disposal costs to help sustain the program past it’s first year. The program will subcontract with WasteCap Resource Solutions (of Wisconsin) to help train contractors and haulers in C&D materials management over the two year period and to equip the program with the capability to continue to offer this training in the long-term.
A key component of the program will be the provision of training on C&D materials management for NYS haulers and contractors. While these groups (and building owners) are motivated to improve onsite management of C&D so that more can be recycled, they lack the skills and capabilities to move forward. On-site C&D materials management services will also be offered.
The program will also:
- gather information to better characterize NYS’s C&D waste stream and utilize this information for C&D market development in NYS;
- identify end-uses to which the materials currently flow and could potentially flow;
- connect sources with end-users of C&D materials via networking; and
- help NYS’s C&D and building materials reuse communities to self-identify and become part of a network, viewing the new program as the “go-to” source for assistance with C&D recycling.
Partnerships with related organizations will include the USGBC New York Upstate chapter, waste and materials haulers, chapters of the NYS Builders Association; and key players in the NYS green building sector such as Northeast Natural Homes and Hope for Us Housing.