USA Gypsum has established itself as one of the few standalone drywall recyclers in the U.S. thanks to its commitment to creating markets.

While recycled gypsum is widely embraced today for its use as a soil amendment, agricultural bedding additive and for other applications, it wasn’t too long ago that the potential for drywall recycling was largely untapped.

Terry Weaver, president of Denver, Pennsylvania-based USA Gypsum, says that his entrée into the world of gypsum recycling was largely a matter of happenstance.

In the mid-1990s, Weaver was making a living running a construction company and operating farms. Michael W. Brubaker, who was serving as Weaver’s agronomist at the time, began to explore the potential for improving the quality of agricultural land by introducing gypsum to serve as a soil amendment, conditioner and fertilizer.

“Michael Brubaker came up with this concept of using gypsum to improve the soil, but there was none available nearby. That was prior to even the advent of FGD gypsum, so you were stuck with relying on mines from Nova Scotia or Michigan as a source,” Weaver says. “He started testing the core of drywall around 1996 to see if it was suitable, and it appeared like it was, so he set about to develop a system to remove the outer paper of the drywall from the drywall core, which is an important part of what you do in gypsum recycling, and he came up with a nice little system to do that, but it was small. In 1998, USA Gypsum was formed.”

Shortly after developing this system to recycle drywall, Brubaker decided to sell his agronomy business and run for state Senate, which he was ultimately successful at.

Needing someone to take over the recycling operation, Brubaker turned to Weaver to take the reins.

“He called me and just said, ‘Hey, I don't know if this is something that could be scaled up, but do you think it could be a real business?’ After thinking about it, it seemed like a good idea to me, so I decided to agree to take over the operations,” Weaver says.

With a large extended family and friends in the region making a living in agriculture, Weaver was able to find early adopters interested in using recycled gypsum. Soon, demand in the area began to outpace the production capabilities of that first recycling facility, resulting in Weaver moving the business to a larger facility in 2000.

It was around this time that Weaver, who was still managing a construction business, decided to go all in on the new recycling venture.

“I didn't put all my eggs in that [recycling] basket for a little while because I didn't know how far we could scale it up, but within a couple of years, I said to myself, ‘Yeah, I think this is going to be OK,’” he says.

Due to USA Gypsum’s rural location, the initial end markets were almost exclusively agricultural. However, over time, Weaver began to search for and find other outlets for the gypsum the company extrapolated from incoming wallboard generated from C&D processors, manufacturers, and construction and building material suppliers.

“Our markets initially were all agriculture because that was the purpose of starting the business, but over the years, we developed some other markets,” he says. “The three big users of gypsum are first wallboard manufacturers—that's by far the largest. Second is for the production of Portland cement, and third is agriculture and incidental uses. We started supplying the cement industry around 2003, and that was our first instance of branching out from agricultural customers. And then over the years, other people have found us for a variety of things, anything from reclaiming contaminated soils to clearing up muddy ponds. We have a lot of different applications.”

More recently, Weaver says that the company began to supply some wallboard manufacturers with gypsum. However, the inherent economics of supplying wallboard manufacturers can make it a challenge for recyclers, Weaver notes.

He says that one of the initial challenges of supplying wallboard manufacturers is that many manufacturers set up shop adjacent to a port or power plant to ensure an economical source of gypsum is available. Additionally, the vast quantities of gypsum that these customers require make it difficult for recyclers to meet the demand. Then there is the issue that different consistencies of recycled gypsum might require manufacturers to take additional steps to blend or handle the material to make it right for their processes and equipment.

On the flip side, Weaver notes that the growing demand for companies to champion sustainable practices and embrace a closed loop model of operation has helped USA Gypsum market its products to these customers.

“I believe personally that in the future, [the closed loop approach] is going to be an important part of gypsum drywall recycling, and that really that needs to happen in order for it to really be scaled up nationwide to where it becomes a standard practice,” he says.

Part and parcel of finding markets involves continuing to refine processing practices, Weaver notes.

USA Gypsum uses various magnets and a pick line to remove incidental non-magnetic contaminants and other debris from the 200 to 250 tons of incoming material the company accepts every day between its two Pennsylvania-based facilities. While Weaver keeps the specifics of the company’s sorting equipment and processes close to the vest, he notes that the company is constantly working to evaluate technological advances for improved separation capabilities.

In 2015, the company constructed an all-new process plant, which marked another evolution in the company’s ability to handle incoming material.

“I think the equipment that we have installed right now would be the fifth complete version we’ve used since our founding. By that. I mean a dramatically different form of equipment. There's been this progression both in volume [we’ve been able to process] and quality of materials we are able to generate, and we just keep on tweaking it to get it right,” he says.

Weaver says the company is currently looking at investing in some new equipment to further improve the company’s separation efficiency. Down the line, he says the company is also keeping an eye on the economics and potential for robotic sorting to replace the company’s manual sorting processes, but Weaver wants to see more to ensure the technology provides an ROI before making the investment.

USA Gypsum’s commitment to continually refining its sorting processes, as well as its capacity to create new gypsum products for different applications, has allowed the company to diversify its reach.

Weaver says that due to the nature of transportation costs, roughly 60 percent of the company’s volumes are shipped within 150 miles. However, Weaver says that the company’s work blending materials to produce value-added products and packaging it in bags and super sacks has been an important aspect in helping the business reach new customers.

He says USA Gypsum’s rigorous devotion to finding end market solutions can be traced back to the origins of the company.

“Our entry into the business and focus on the business has always been end markets, not because we're smarter than anybody, but because it was a necessity,” he says. “A lot of people I see approach the business are from the recycling side and the focus just naturally tends to be on acquiring material and then cost avoidance on the outbound side. We just started on the other foot and stayed focused in that way. I think that's why we're one of the few standalone drywall recyclers in the country.”

Beyond the products themselves, USA Gypsum’s approach to serving the customer is something Weaver says has helped differentiate the company from large traditional gypsum suppliers. He says USA Gypsum works to accommodate custom orders and provide personal service in a way that these companies might not be able or willing to do.

“That's where we've found a niche of sorts—working to fill orders for those customers who might not be regular users. Maybe it’s someone doing work clarifying ponds or someone who owns a golf course and is looking for a soil amendment. Being able to step up to fill these one-off and custom orders has been a real value-added side of our business,” Weaver says.

“I think [providing quality customer service] is how we’ve worked to serve our niche clients,” he adds. “The personalized service that we can offer is a good match and we pride ourselves on that. We try to answer the phone, we try to be available to answer questions and we're pretty open trying to be helpful. We've developed a nice little business out of that.”

This article originally appeared in the July/August issue of Construction & Demolition Recycling magazine. The author is the editor of Construction & Demolition Recycling magazine and can be reached at aredling@gie.net.

The strategy supports producer responsibility for plastic packaging and includes a national standard that all plastic packaging contains at least 30 percent recycled plastic by 2030.

According to a news release issued by the American Chemistry Council (ACC), Washington, leading plastic companies have presented Congress with an outline of five actions the legislative body can take to grow the circular economy for plastics.

The strategy includes a national standard for plastic packaging to contain at least 30 percent recycled plastic by 2030, developing an appropriate regulatory system that enables rapid scaling of advanced recycling and an American-designed producer responsibility system for packaging that raises critical funding dedicated to improving recycling access, collection and education for all materials, the ACC says.

The association says 78 percent of voters support a national program to require that plastic packaging include 30 percent recycled plastic by 2030, according to a study conducted by BWC. The ACC adds that Independent Commodity Intelligence Service estimates that 13 billion pounds of recycled plastic would be needed by 2030 to achieve this.

The ACC’s Vice President, Plastics, Joshua Baca, says advanced recycling, or chemical recycling, will be critical in enabling an adequate supply of recycled content because it allows more volumes and types of plastics to be recycled than can be achieved with current processes. “These technologies and capabilities can help the more than 400 global brands that have committed to using more recycled plastics in their packaging to achieve their circular business goals,” he says. “Advanced recycling also will allow recycled plastics to be used broadly in more demanding applications, such as packaging for food, pharmaceutical and medical-grade products, which is currently limited.”

Advanced recycling technologies will help achieve two of the plastics industry's circular economy goals: making 100 percent of U.S. plastic packaging recyclable or recoverable by 2030 and ensuring 100 percent of plastic packaging is reused, recycled or recovered by 2040.

“It’s time to accelerate the circular economy for plastic packaging,” Baca says. “We need Congress to act on a comprehensive national strategy that will capture the value of used plastic by engaging the entire plastics value chain, from plastic makers to brand companies to all Americans.

“We’re proposing a new way of looking at plastic waste that will lead to a circular economy in which plastics are routinely reused. These policies will divert plastic waste from landfills and our ocean, conserve natural resources and help drive down greenhouse gas emissions.”

In addition to proposing the recycled-content requirement, regulations that support chemical recycling and producer responsibility legislation, the ACC also is calling for Congress to direct the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Department of Energy (DOE) to bring together the plastics value chain and municipalities to develop a national recycling framework for plastics and to engage the National Academy of Sciences to conduct a study that compares the impacts of raw materials and use its findings to guide future policies.

The ACC says it supports “an American-designed producer responsibility system for consumer packaging that strengthens environmental protection and is dedicated to helping fund infrastructure development.” The organization adds, “An American-designed producer responsibility system, prioritized to modernize and expand access, collection and consumer education, would help provide critical funding dedicated to developing a more circular economy for consumer packaging. In addition, implementation of clear national recycling standards that embrace all economic and environmentally sustainable forms of advanced and mechanical recycling will be a critical enabler of any producer responsibility system. A well-designed program and clear national standards should provide the right incentives and disincentives to prevent litter, discourage landfilling and encourage recycling aligned with The Recycling Partnership and the EPA Waste Management Hierarchy.”

The ACC says such a system would improve the recycling system overall by increasing access and modernizing the collection of all recyclables; provide funding to help improve recycling access, collection, sorting and outreach by investing all money collected through fees on consumer-packaged goods back into the system; consider and incentivize the use of packaging materials with better environmental performance; support innovation in recycling technologies via the private and public sectors to ensure more used plastic is reused and not treated as waste; and maintain and promote a competitive, free-market approach to strengthen manufacturing supply chains and to develop recycling infrastructure and new circular markets for recycled plastics through appropriate collaboration across the plastics value chain.

Peterson Real Assets will invest an undisclosed amount in the recycled-content Crossroads Paper mill.

A subsidiary of Salt Lake City-based Peterson Partners Inc. says it has made an equity investment in Crossroads Paper, a 100-percent-recycled-content packaging board mill planned for construction in Utah “to serve the growing demand for e-commerce, agricultural and industrial packaging in the Western United States.”

The Peterson Real Assets subsidiary involved says it “invests with a long-term view” and “looks for opportunities in the resources and real assets sectors to make both pre-development and commercialization stage investments into projects that can have a long-term positive impact on the industries and communities in which they operate.”

Matthew Day, partner with Peterson Partners, says, “Crossroads Paper is a true environmentally sustainable real assets project that we believe will become a critical piece of the recycling, packaging and e-commerce infrastructure of the West. We are passionate about helping great people build great businesses. John Sasine and Ron Sasine are not only outstanding entrepreneurs, but they are veterans of the industry. We are thrilled to be backing such an outstanding team.”

Crossroads Paper CEO John Sasine comments, “Finding partners who not only have an appetite for large-scale real assets projects but also believe in our mission of sustainability was critical. Peterson Partners is the ideal partner for our company’s next phase.”

The Crossroads Paper venture was announced in 2019. At that time, the company’s founders said it expected the mill to have one papermaking machine with the capacity to produce 350,000 to 375,000 tons per year. The Sasines said they anticipated the mill would consume 385,000 tons of recovered fiber annually, both in the form of old corrugated containers (OCC) and mixed paper, with OCC accounting for an expected 70 percent of the mill’s furnish.

Peterson Partners indicates a site selection process is still underway as of late June, “with a final determination expected by year-end.”

Peterson Partners describes itself as an independent investment management firm with more than $1 billion in assets under management. Since first raising outside capital nearly 20 years ago, Peterson has invested in more than 200 companies, says the firm.

Green Meadow has assumed ownership of a landfill and pair of transfer stations in the deal.

Green Meadow Sustainable Solutions, an environmental services firm based in Fayette, Mississippi, announced it has acquired Riverbend Environmental Services LLC of Mississippi.

Green Meadow says the purchase was finalized in November 2020.

Owned by a group of investors led by Baton Rouge, Louisiana-based Bernhard Capital Partners, Green Meadow has assumed ownership of Riverbend’s assets, including the Riverbend Landfill in Jefferson County, Mississippi, and transfer stations in Vicksburg, Mississippi, and Baton Rouge. Green Meadow will also maintain existing contractual partnerships with municipalities in the region, including transfer station operation and solid waste collection for the city of Brookhaven, Mississippi, and surrounding counties.

Green Meadow announced it is investing heavily in “state-of-the-art” infrastructure upgrades and new equipment to ensure regulatory compliance. It is also working with environmental and construction partners to enhance the landfill site and add more working cells.

Green Meadow is led by CEO John Foley, who brings more than three decades of leadership in division and site management, as well as safety oversight at multiple major market waste disposal companies, to the position.

CFO Kyle Aulenbach brings more than 18 years of waste industry experience, with a career that spans several major service providers, including Republic Services, Progressive Waste (now Waste Connections), and, most recently, Advanced Disposal Services (now Waste Management).

Director of Business Development Yolanda Foley is focused on the strategic growth of the company via existing and new-market area expansions, including municipal contracts and acquisitions. She brings nearly three decades of organizational management and market development expertise, and has provided marketing consulting services to waste haulers across the Southeast U.S.

“We have set the bar high for the value we are going to deliver to our customers, to our employees and to the community,” John Foley says. “We are problem solvers, working with our customers to provide customized solutions and expand our scale and capabilities to serve market needs. Likewise, we bring a deep commitment to environmental sustainability.”

“We are building a team with a shared focus on exceptional customer service, safety, environmental sustainability and overall operational excellence,” Yolanda Foley says. “We have given them the tools they need, and we are very excited about this opportunity to further grow our community and commercial partnerships.”

Ralph Velocci was most recently a senior vice president at Waste Pro and on the company’s board.

Waste Pro, Longwood, Florida, has announced that Ralph Velocci died July 15 at the at age 72. 

Velocci most recently was a senior vice president at Waste Pro and a member of the company’s board of directors.

Velocci grew up in Long Island, New York, where he got his start in the industry working on his father’s garbage trucks. According to the company, he first worked with Waste Pro founder John Jennings in the 1990s at USA Waste when the company acquired Waste Management, and later reconnected with Jennings at Waste Pro in 2009. From there, Velocci led Waste Pro’s commercial sales and oversaw the company’s landfill and recycling operations.

According to a statement from the company, “Velocci made a difference in the lives of people around him. He acted as a mentor to many in the company and industry, generously offering his time, knowledge and expertise. He was beloved and respected by his family, friends, all of his Waste Pro family and will be greatly missed.”

“Ralph was an exceptional businessman. He loved the simple things around him and never took for granted how fortunate he was,” Jennings says. “He was the son of Italian immigrants who lived the American Dream with a strong personality whose impact will last a long time.”