USG Corp. announced Tuesday that its gypsum recycling program partner, Gypsum Recycling America, LLC (GRA), has begun collecting new 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.
USG is the first building materials manufacturer to provide this service.
"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 Corp.
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, located in Cambridge, Mass., started collecting new-construction wallboard scrap in March. This fall, the scrap will be processed by a patented new mobile recycling machine. The machine converts the material into a gypsum powder that USG's plant in Charlestown, Mass., 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.
USG customers can recycle pre-approved ceiling panels made by USG or other manufacturers and, once customers have a full truckload, USG will pay the way.