Gypsum industry news

Belgium: Etex’s 2020 Sustainability Report has recorded the company’s progress towards its sustainability goals under four headings. Under the heading ‘carbon neutrality,’ it produced and purchased 72% of its electricity consumption renewably, compared to 14% in 2019. Under ‘health, safety and wellbeing,’ its lost-time accidents per million working hours fell by 36% year-on-year to 1.4 from 2.2. Under ‘waste management and circularity,’ it reduced its waste generation by 8.9% to 254Mt from 278Mt and reduced the share of its waste sent to landfill to 18% from 26%. Lastly, under ‘diversity and inclusion,’ 28% of the company’s newly hired staff were women, compared to a group total share of 19%.

CEO Paul van Oyen said “At Etex, we have a clear commitment to helping build a better, sustainable future. We seek to offer holistic value to our customers, employees, shareholders and other stakeholders, as we continue to decouple our growth from environmental and social impacts. To help achieve this, we focus on lightweight materials and prefabricated construction. These methods offer advantages such as reduced raw material use, energy consumption, waste and emissions. Even more, they contribute to enhanced long-term circularity by creating opportunities for deconstruction, reuse and recycling.”

Canada: Dalhousie University, in collaboration with the Canada and US joint Gypsum Association and Divert NS, has entered Phase 2 of its research project into uses of construction and demolition waste gypsum in concrete. The research, continuing until September 2023, will test the durability of various concrete mixes containing gypsum powder recycled from waste drywall. It will examine 81 specimens under three environmental exposures and three exposure durations. The team will use the results to understand the performance and environmental benefits of concrete containing recycled gypsum over the life of a structures. Study leader and Canada research chair in sustainable infrastructure Pedram Sadeghian said that Phase 1 of the study had demonstrated that gypsum could be a viable supplementary cementing material when combined with fly ash in concrete.

Sadeghain said “Our research group aims to study the durability of concrete containing recycled gypsum by monitoring compressive strength and potential expansion after exposure to selected environmental conditions, such as moisture and salt particle penetration, that are common to concrete structures exposed to the environment.”

Gypsum Association executive director Stephen Meima said “The gypsum industry is committed to landfill diversion of construction and demolition gypsum panel waste, and Professor Sadeghian’s work demonstrates that waste gypsum panels may have value beyond their service life in buildings and homes.”

Canada: The Gypsum Association has partnered with Divert NS to support research at Dalhousie University into the use of recycled gypsum from construction waste in concrete production. Dalhousie University previously demonstrated that gypsum could be a viable supplementary cementitious material when combined with fly ash in concrete. In this second phase of research, the team aims to expand on the work to optimise concrete production methods and product quality.

Canada research chair in sustainable infrastructure Pedram Sadeghian said “As durability is important for construction materials, our research group at Dalhousie University aims to study the durability of concrete containing recycled gypsum by monitoring the compressive strength and potential expansion after exposure to selected environmental conditions such as moisture and salt particle penetration that are common for concrete structures exposed to the environment.”

Gypsum Association executive director Stephen Meima said “We are very pleased to join Divert NS in supporting research that may improve numerous environmental outcomes. The gypsum industry is committed to landfill diversion of construction and demolition gypsum panel waste, and Professor Sadeghian’s work demonstrates that waste gypsum panels may have value beyond their service life in buildings and homes.”

UK: Durham County Council has granted Agricore permanent permission for its Hill Top Farm gypsum wallboard recycling plant near Darlington, County Durham. The Darlington and Stockton Times newspaper has reported that the gypsum producer had previously held permission on a five-year basis.

Locals in the rural former coal mining area had appealed against the application. Many of the 110 complainants claimed that heavy traffic had rendered a local lane dangerous to walk and cycle on. Agricore sells gypsum to local farmers for use as fertiliser.

The county council required that the company submit plans for a power supply transition from diesel generators to ‘a more sustainable alternative’ before 3 September 2020.

UK: British Gypsum says its wallboard capacity is at ‘approximately’ 80% of pre-coronavirus pandemic levels following the scaling up of its ‘Covid-19 safe’ operations and distribution plan. Managing director Matt Pullen said that the company’s plaster capacity was already at 80% and it was increasing supply volumes to merchant and distributor customers. It is continuing to allocate wallboard and plaster at lower levels than usual as it resumes normal production. It has also restarted taking new orders for its plasterboard recycling service. The subsidiary of Saint-Gobain shut down its non-essential operations in early April 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic.

US: The American Coal Ash Association (ACAA) has criticised a proposed revision of coal ash regulations by the Environmental Protection Agency because it will restrict the recycling of coal ash.

"EPA's proposals related to the definition of coal ash beneficial use are the opposite of a regulatory roll-back," said Thomas H Adams, ACAA Executive Director ahead of a hearing with the EPA. "Without any damage cases or scientific analysis to justify its actions, the agency is seeking to impose burdensome new restrictions that will cause millions more tons of material to be disposed rather than be used in ways that safely conserve natural resources and energy."

Adams and the ACCA argue that previous EPA rules concluded that beneficial use of coal ash should be exempt from regulation and encouraged to contribute to sustainability. However, the ACCA has taken exception with a 2015 definition of beneficial use, which was intended to prevent ‘disposal activities masquerading as beneficial use.’ By expanding the scope of this definition the ACCA says that more coal ash will be landfilled instead of being recycled.

Coal is the fuel source for approximately one-third of electricity generation in the US and produces large volumes of solid coal combustion products - primarily ash and synthetic gypsum from emissions control devices. This family of diverse products is referred to as coal combustion residuals in a disposal setting and is often generically referred to as ‘coal ash.’

According to ACAA's most recent ‘Production and Use Survey,’ 64.4% of the coal ash produced during 2017 was recycled. By volume, 71.8Mt of coal combustion products were beneficially used in 2017 out of 111Mt that were produced. Coal ash production volume increased by 4% year-on-year from 2016.

US: Continuus Material Recovery has acquired ReWall, a company that manufactures building products from recycled materials. Continuus uses consumer and industrial paper and plastic waste to produce building material boards for exterior walls and commercial roofs. Its Everboard product uses a plastic and cellulose core.

“With this acquisition we can accelerate waste reduction opportunities through low cost, easily implementable solutions and generate a universal sustainable raw material for a multitude of new products. Design and engineering is underway for an even larger facility where we will be producing hundreds of millions of board feet of building materials, and then we’ll move into other areas,” said Carl Rush, the chief executive officer (CEO) of Continuus Material Recovery.

US: A team from Washington State University have developed bricks made from recycled gypsum wallboard. The blocks are made from 80% drywall waste and a binder made from industrial by-products. They are waterproof and lighter than earth blocks, bricks or concrete blocks. The researchers are partnering with local contractors to get the waste, and architecture students are using a press to build the blocks, which look like masonry bricks.

The researchers, including Taiji Miyasaka, professor in the School of Design and Construction, David Drake, adjunct faculty in the School of Design and Construction, and Robert Richards, a professor in the School of Mechanical and Materials Engineering, began developing the wallboard blocks in 2017 with a grant from the American Institute of Architects. They have also received an Amazon Catalyst grant to move the project from laboratory scale to a demonstration structure. In the next year, the researchers will be testing the blocks to meet building, seismic and fire codes. They also aim to build a 15m² demonstration structure.

A prototype structure featuring the wallboard-based bricks will be displayed as part of the ‘Make/Do: A History of Creative Reuse’ exhibition that is running at the Washington State History Museum until December 2018.

Ireland: Gyproc has launched what it says is the country’s first wallboard recycling service at its Kingscourt plant in County Cavan. The subsidiary of Saint-Gobain hopes to recycle 0.5Mt of wallboard by 2028. It has spent Euro1.5m on the upgrade to the plant and it has increased the number of employees to 220.

“We’re very proud to be the first and only plasterboard manufacturer in the country to offer recycling of our products on the island,” said Brian Dolan, Managing Director of Gyproc. “As a market leader in this sector we are determined to be at the forefront of innovation in new products and services, and in the sustainability and environmental benefits of those services.” The manufacturer sources gypsum from its Drummond mine in County Monaghan.

Denmark: Environmental services company Reconor, a subsidiary of private equity firm Agilitas, has purchased Mijodan for an undisclosed sum. Mijodan, based in South Jutland, recycles a number of products, including gypsum wallboard.