Plasterboard recycling faces problematic future

The ‘Sustainability, Impacts and Initiative' launched last week (September 24) was written by resource efficiency expert Gilli Hobbs on behalf of the Plasterboard Sustainability Partnership – a working group formed of the plasterboard industry and Defra under its ‘roadmaps' project – and looks at the environmental issues surrounding plasterboard.

In particular, it outlines work done to date to improve the recyclability of plasterboard material and claims that the increased use of foam-backed and thermal laminate plasterboards in order to improve thermal efficiency in homes could restrict future recyclability, as these materials deviate from its traditional composition.

It explains that changes to the composition could make the process of recycling “more difficult” and “more costly” unless new technologies to process the material are put in place.

The study states: “Future recycling [of plasterboard] definitely looks problematic, so an initial action could be to research the potential impact of future waste arisings and the technical viability of recycling thermal laminate boards.”

The findings could create concerns for councils and specialist contractors which have made moves to provide plasterboard collection services at household waste and recycling centres.

Contractors and councils including those in Croydon, Wiltshire and Devon have increasingly looked to provide recycling services following legislative changes which came into effect in April this year requiring the separation of material with gypsum content for reuse, recycling or landfilling in specialist cells.

Recycled plasterboard can be used as a raw material in the manufacture of new plasterboard and plasterboard products; as a soil treatment agent for use in agriculture; and as an additive in cement clinker.

“Challenge”

The Defra study claims that existing recycling initiatives for plasterboard need to be improved if the sector was to meet self-imposed recycling targets.

In assessing the voluntary producer responsibility scheme the Ashdown Agreement (see letsrecycle.com story), the study claims that achieving the 2010 target of recycling 50% (300,000 tonnes) of plasterboard from construction waste would be a “challenge”.

The study states that, in order to achieve the 2010 goal, “additional activities to retrieve and recycle plasterboard waste from construction sites will need to be identified and adopted in a very short timescale”.

According to the study there have been moves to increase recycling capacity through manufacturer take back schemes, but it did explain that this could “be limited to large users of plasterboard”. It states that smaller sites and plasterboard arising from demolition tended to deal with transfer stations or independent recycling facilities.

Assessing the future of plasterboard recycling, the study did not give an optimistic view and states: “Recovery and recycling options, capacity and infrastructure are likely to be underdeveloped for the end of life waste stream for some time”.

“This needs to be addressed in light of the targets likely to arise from the remaining Agreements, drivers such as the increase in Landfill Tax, the target to halve construction, demolition and excavation waste to landfill by 2012 and the overall aspiration to have zero plasterboard waste going to landfill,” it continues.