Processing construction and demolition waste saves valuable landfill space and represents “huge money,” Brendan McKenzie, national sales manager, OSA Demolition Equipment, tells Municipal Solid Waste Management.
The trade publication reports that an end user of McKenzie’s company’s products told him some C&D recyclables are now so valuable “they’re actually mining landfills” to retrieve them. “They’re going back and looking for metal they threw away a few decades ago. It’s basically money buried right there in their landfill.”
C&D recycling is a $7.4 billion industry, Recycling Today reports. More than 480 million tons of C&D waste is generated in the US annually, making it the largest individual solid waste stream in the country.
