Currently, waste gypsum wallboard is typically either disposed of directly in solid waste facilities or is processed with other C&D wastes and ends up in the residuals. Hydrogen sulfide gas is created at landfills where gypsum is a component of C&D residuals used as alternative daily cover (ADC) in all of the northeast states. To address this problem, the waste management programs in the region are currently in varying stages of developing limits for gypsum content in ADC. At the same time, markets for recycling gypsum wallboard are starting to be developed. A multi-state effort to facilitate the expansion of recycling markets for gypsum wallboard provides two significant benefits - reducing a public health problem from hydrogen sulfide gas at landfills, and increasing the sustainability of C&D materials management.

In FY 2009 NEWMOA initiated a project to develop a regional approach to increasing the reduction, reuse, and recycling of gypsum wallboard waste. Through the project, the states are assessing the viability of numerous policy, regulatory, and other program options regarding gypsum wallboard to facilitate the development of recycling options by:

• encouraging an increase in the supply of gypsum wallboard waste to processors
• ensuring that gypsum wastes are processed in an environmentally sound manner and into environmentally sound products
• encouraging the use of products that incorporate recycled gypsum

Through the project, states have engaged private sector stakeholders to obtain their perspective on the various ideas. To learn more about the perspective of potential users of the gypsum produced from wallboard recycling, NEWMOA organized a conference call between the NEWMOA C&D Debris Workgroup and Dragon Cement (Thomaston, ME) and a webinar with USA Gypsum (Reinhold, PA), a supplier of recycled gypsum for agricultural applications. NEWMOA also organized site tours of Lafarge Cement in Ravena, NY, and two wallboard manufacturers: National Gypsum in Portsmouth, NH and GP Gypsum in Newington, NY. NEWMOA has also had extensive discussions with a company that collects waste wallboard from C&D contractors and processes it to produce gypsum powder, Gypsum Recycling America (Cambridge, MA).

For more information, contact Jennifer Griffith at