NGC recycling waste wallboard

Charlotte, NC-based National Gypsum Company (NGC) has an agreement with Gypsum Recycling International A/S (GRI) to purchase and recycle wallboard waste reclaimed from new construction sites beginning this fall in Massachusetts and New Hampshire.

NGC will recycle the material into new wallboard at its Portsmouth, NH plant. GRI, the Danish firm which developed the recycling system, will collect the waste wallboard and crush it. GRI has had a similar system operating successfully in conjunction with wallboard manufacturers in Scandinavia for the past three years.

Jerry Carroll, senior vice-president, NGC, said in a statement that the company “will divert up to 30,000 tons of waste gypsum to its Portsmouth plant alone. We will begin the project in Massachusetts and New Hampshire and plan to expand it throughout the northeast as circumstances  allow.” National Gypsum and GRI will evaluate opportunities in other areas of the United States.

Henrik Lund-Nielsen, CEO of GRI, told Paper Industry in an email that the board-facing paper recovered during the operation is  either incinerated (representing energy recovered) or used for composting. It is also being tested for animal bedding or re-use in the paper industry.

The recycling unit is mounted on a trailer and needs only a tractor unit to move it. Lund-Nielsen pointed out that one unit can serve several warehouses so the waste itself does not have to be moved far. GRI is privately owned. Established in 2001, it operates gypsum recycling systems in Europe and is being launched in the UK and Ireland.

NGC has gypsum board facing mills at Oxford, AL, Pryor, OK, Milton, PA, and Delair, NJ. www.nationalgypsum.com,
www.gypsumrecycling.biz PI

Back to Current Issue

Paper Industry Publishing Office
PO Box 2419, Montgomery, Alabama 36102
Toll Free:1-888-224-6611
Tel: (604) 264-1158  Fax: (604) 264-1367
Publisher: Tim Shaddick
Email: info@paperindustrymag.com