USG Provides Gypsum, Ceiling Panel Recycling

USG Corp. announced that its gypsum recycling program partner, Gypsum Recycling America, LLC, started collecting gypsum wallboard scrap, which will be recycled and reused in USG's wallboard manufacturing operations. USG also announced that it will collect and recycle customers' used ceiling panels as part of the company's new USG Ceiling Panel Recycling Program.

"With these two programs, we're helping to divert thousands of tons of waste from landfills and reusing it for wallboard and ceiling panel production, while also helping our customers and others lower their waste disposal fees," said David Wonnell, director, Environmental and Manufacturing Services at USG Corporation.

USG was the first wallboard manufacturer to contract with GRA's parent company, Gypsum Recycling International, to purchase reprocessed gypsum for the production of new wallboard.

GRA's first facility started collecting new-construction wallboard scrap in March. This fall, the scrap will be processed by a new mobile recycling machine. The machine then converts the material into a gypsum powder that USG's plant in Charlestown, Mass., the state's only wallboard manufacturer, will reuse in making new wallboard.

GRA's Cambridge recycling facility can process a permitted capacity of 60,000 tons of recycled gypsum a year. As GRA expands in the Northeast, USG's plants in Stony Point, N.Y., and Baltimore, Md., will also purchase the reprocessed gypsum. Massachusetts was chosen as GRA's first site because of the state's strong interest in gypsum recycling.

The company also announced that its customers can now recycle pre-approved ceiling panels made by USG or other manufacturers and, once customers have a full truckload, USG will pay the way.

"Recycling of ceiling panels won't happen if it adds to the time and cost of a renovation. That's why we've designed our program to be fast, easy and economical," said J. Mark Kemerling, USG's product marketing manager, Ceiling Panels. "In the same time it takes to haul small loads of panels to a Dumpster, workers can stack panels as they are removed, avoid landfill disposal costs and support a project's ability to earn U.S. Green Building Council LEED credits."

USG's Ceiling Panel Recycling Program accepts panels from the continental U.S. and areas of Canada, and is as simple as stacking, wrapping and calling for a ride. USG will reuse the recycled panels to manufacture new ceiling products. The company already recycles and reuses ceiling panels that are damaged during manufacturing. Many of USG's ceiling panels also use recycled paper and contain mineral wool made of slag, a byproduct of steel production.