Home to Starbucks, Microsoft and Amazon.com, Seattle has had no difficulty attracting new residents. In the past decade, the city's population has increased 10 percent, resulting in a construction surge.

Construction debris now makes up 20 to 30 percent of the waste stream in the Seattle area. Although 30 to 40 percent of that is recycled, King County aims to increase that rate by promoting construction recycling and connecting builders with recyclers.

Operated as part of the county's Solid Waste Division, the Construction Recycling and Green Building Program has two goals: to ensure that job-site material is recycled to the greatest extent possible, and to accelerate the adoption of green building practices, technologies, policies and standards in residential and commercial development. In short, it focuses on teaching the building industry about recycling and reusing construction materials.

The construction recycling portion of the program addresses construction, demolition and landclearing (CDL) debris. Two full-time employees identify upcoming projects that could generate substantial construction waste then contact the developers and work with them to establish waste management plans.

“CDL program staff focuses on creating and exploiting incentives for construction companies to recycle their waste and to build with salvaged and recycled-content materials,” says Theresa Koppang, manager of the Green Building Program. They do that, in part, by maintaining a searchable, online database of recyclers and salvaged goods that assists developers in finding disposal outlets and suppliers. They also promote the economic benefits of recycling, noting that it costs a builder approximately $85 per ton to dump construction materials in King County, while it costs them $55 per ton or less — sometimes nothing — to recycle.

Developers often are concerned that recycling will require time-consuming and costly separation of material. Koppang argues that additional labor can be minimized and that money saved through recycling far outweighs any increase in labor costs. For example, when Seattle-based contractor H.S. Wright remodeled the Microsoft Data Center in Bothell, Wash., the company had a tight six-month deadline. It found that the construction project had distinct phases during which single types of waste, such as concrete or wood, could be sorted easily. Recovering goods according to phases nearly eliminated the time spent sorting the material. In all, more than 1,200 tons of debris were recycled, saving the company more than $195,000.

Several other developers have taken advantage of the county's technical assistance in construction recycling. For example, Seattle-based Sellen Construction contracted for work on Microsoft Pebble Beach in Redmond, Wash. The company established a waste management plan with CDL staffers, and, as a result, recycled 74 percent of its waste and saved $186,000. Hensel Phelps, Greeley, Colo., recycled 61 percent of the debris generated by construction of the King County Regional Justice Center, saving $242,630.

To help promote its construction recycling program, King County has produced “Construction and Demolition Recycling: The King County Experience,” a publication that includes case studies. Also, it compiles the annual “Seattle/King County Construction Recycling Directory” that walks customers through the process of setting up a construction recycling program and includes lists of area recyclers, broken down by material.

The CDL program is just one part of a multi-pronged effort in the county to increase construction recycling and reduce waste. For information about other activities and resources, visit http://dnr.metrokc.gov/swdbizprog/sus_build/susbuild.htm.

Kim O'Connell, freelancer, Arlington, Va. Reprinted, with permission, from Waste Age magazine (www.wasteage.com), a sister publication of American City & County.