CDRA issues comments on EPA’s National Recycling Strategy draft

The Construction & Demolition Recycling Association (CDRA) has issued comments on the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) recently released National Recycling Strategy draft.

The National Recycling Strategy draft is composed of three strategic objectives: reduce contamination in the recycling stream, increase processing efficiency and improve markets to strengthen the U.S. recycling system, and serve as the organizing framework under which proposed actions in the draft strategy are organized.

While the CDRA says it supports the EPA’s efforts to improve recycling throughout the country, the association notes that the current National Recycling Strategy draft seems to single-out packaging and municipal solid waste, without factoring in the importance of construction and demolition materials recycling.

“We suggest that [the] general public would be interested in seeing more building materials recycled, and more information on what to do with that material should be included in this strategy,” the CDRA writes in its letter to the EPA.

The CDRA goes on to advocate for “balancing attention to established and new markets” and developing “clear market commodities” that can be traded on the Chicago Board of Trade and other such boards. CDRA says these established commodities, which could be regulated through a certified agency, could help serve as reliable inputs to manufacturing.

The CDRA further states that there are several missing or underemphasized elements of EPA’s draft, including:

• Lack of recognition of the importance of recycling in combating climate change;
• Need to recognize the technological advances in processing (such as robots optical sorting) and the near-term impacts these solutions may have on suitable processing and feasible materials; and
• Inclusion of yard and organic waste recycling, as well as waste reduction, in the strategy.