Emerging trends in environmental services: promoting holistic sustainability.

• Author: Barbour, Tracy
• Position: ENVIRONMENTAL SERVICES

Alaska's environmental services companies are seeing a number of trends developing within the industry. For instance, Central Recycling Services has noticed a growing interest in recycling, reuse, and salvage. Waste Management is taking a holistic approach to serving clients and promoting sustainability to avoid sending materials to landfills. The North Wind Group of companies is seeing more attention shifting toward the Arctic. And E3-Environmental LLC is providing more consulting services to larger providers who are placing a greater emphasis on stakeholder engagement, logistics, and planning.

Salvage, Recycle, Reuse

Central Recycling Services collects construction and demolition waste from all over Alaska and transforms it into useful products. The recycling facility, which sits on 7.5 acres in downtown Anchorage, uses a meticulous process to divert scrap metal, sheetrock, plastic, wood, and other materials from landfills.

First, all large and hazardous items are extracted from the debris. Everything else goes through a giant shredder, screens, and mechanical systems that pull out various materials. These remaining items are sorted by hand on a long conveyor belt and recycled in excess of 75 percent of the waste (excluding hazardous materials), according to Project Manager Shane Durand. Concrete gets crushed into road base; glass gets transformed into pipe bedding; and wood gets shredded into mulch. Cardboard and plastic are baled and sold to the Lower 48.

Central Recycling Services is a unique component of the Central family of companies, which also include Central Environmental, Inc. (CEI) and Central Monofill Services. These companies provide full-service facility decommissioning, including all forms of remediation and abatement, demolition, recycling, and waste disposal. This typically involves the removal of asbestos and other hazardous materials from a facility, demolition of the facility, and recycling of the resultant demolition debris. Any remaining on-site contamination is remediated.

Durand says the environmental services industry is placing more emphasis on recycling, reuse, and salvage possibilities. The trend is due, in part, to companies' desire to be more environmentally responsible. A lot of firms are more conscious of their footprint with disposal and where material will end up. He explains, "Now, they want to know where it's going. They don't want their waste to come back to haunt them."

Another major factor in the trend toward recycling construction and demolition waste is LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design), the rating system for the design, construction, operation, and maintenance of green buildings.

The increased awareness of modern building efficiencies is also leading the government to replace old facilities. Federal goals to reduce operational costs have resulted in different Facility Reduction Programs that remove antiquated buildings burdened with high operational and maintenance...