Heat is On Las Vegas C&D Recyclers

Three handlers of C&D debris in the Las Vegas area are being sued in federal court by Republic Silver State Disposal, which is the franchised hauler for much of Clark County.

The lawsuit claims that Nevada Construction Clean Up and Lunas Construction are operating two illegal dumps in Clark County, as is Western Elite, which is also charged with an illegal landfill in Lincoln County.

The Las Vegas Review-Journal has reported that the lawsuit claims the defendants fraudulently posed as legitimate haulers of construction and demolition waste and as recyclers.

The document claims Nevada Construction and Lunas “provide virtually no recycling” and that the waste they haul is “not properly disposed of under federal, state and local law.”

Under franchising restrictions, Republic is the only company allowed to collect and dispose of C&D materials generated in the area, although local ordinances do allow a commercial recycler to transport recyclable material.

What is recyclable is defined under regulations approved by the Clark County Board of Health late last year (see “Mixed C&D Markets Pinched in Vegas,” C&D Recycler, pg. 6, Jan./Feb. 2003). Those regulations identify source-separated loads as recyclable, but label mixed debris as waste that must go to Republic’s landfill. Critics contend the regulations were developed by a committee made up of board members and representatives of Republic, with input from no other haulers or recyclers.

Republic’s lawsuit claims the defendants were engaged in a racketeering activity, and also accuses them of interfering with franchise agreements between Republic and Clark County, Las Vegas, North Las Vegas and Henderson. The suit seeks unspecified damages and seeks an injunction to stop the defendants from accepting any more mixed material at their sites. It also asks the defendants to clean up their sites.

The Review-Journal quotes Norberto Madrigal, part owner of Lunas Construction, saying he disagrees with all the allegations in the lawsuit. “They want to shut us down because they’re not getting the money from the materials that we’re recycling,” Madrigal tells the paper.

Other recyclers in the area who are not named in the suit say that despite Republic having the current regulations written in their favor for more than six months, the company has laid low until now in using the rules’ third-party enforcement capabilities because the state’s legislature has been in session.

The legislature only meets every two years, so the critics of Republic say the company probably did not want the media image of legitimate recyclers gathering in Carson City to complain about the anti-recycling nature of the county regulations.