![[logo] US EPA](http://www.epa.gov/epafiles/images/logo_epaseal.gif){kind=logo}
Case Studies
The following articles highlight successful C&D debris management projects implemented in Region 2. Additional case studies and fact sheets are available on the national C&D Debris Web site in the Publications area.
Local firm sorts WTC debris
(Source: Alan Snel, Times Herald-Record, January 22, 2002 print edition)Staten Island - Eric Beck has worked many construction sites. Nothing prepared him emotionally for the Fresh Kills Landfill, where workers are combing 1.5 million tons of World Trade Center rubble for body parts, personal belongings and potential criminal evidence.
"One day, a hand came up with a wedding ring," said Beck, 38, a 17-year member of Laborers Local 17 in Newburgh and a Middle Hope resident. "It almost made me give it up right then."
The job of sorting, separating and studying the debris is done on top of an old, capped landfill that was reopened for the grim task of identifying victims and recovering evidence.
It's a surreal world atop the dump, where a $125 million mini-village of trailers and makeshift buildings house everything from police command posts and a morgue to decontamination units, showers and a cafeteria named the Hilltop Cafe. There's even a heliport and 1,000 mangled Ground Zero vehicles, including dozens of crushed fire trucks.About 12-15 barges arrive daily, ferrying debris from Ground Zero in Lower Manhattan. To process 8,000 tons of rubble a day, authorities have enlisted a company in the Town of Montgomery to help the 24 city, state and federal agencies at the landfill.
The debris recovery effort hit the 1.1 million-ton mark Friday - and there's 400,000 million tons of World Trade Center rubble to go until the job is finished in either April or May.
Beck works as a supervisor for Taylor Recycling Facility LLC, a company that has specialized in handling construction and demolition debris since 1989. But this job at Fresh Kills is like no other for Taylor Recycling.Machinery bought by Taylor and installed at the landfill separates the rubble with screening equipment, divides the rubble based on size and distributes the metal pieces, concrete chunks and other items to a pair of conveyor belts.
Police officers and firefighters in white body suits and respirators comb the items moving on 40-foot-long, five-foot-wide conveyor belts that are housed in greenhouse-like structures next to the screening equipment. Taylor's 40 workers maintain and operate the equipment.
The agents use small rakes to hunt for clues that could help identify victims. Body parts are bagged, tagged and stored at the morgue on site before they are DNA tested. More than 50 victims have been identified from the several thousand body parts recovered at the landfill.
Before Taylor got the job, authorities discussed sorting debris by hand. When the company's owner, Hans Taylor, heard workers were going to separate the rubble with rakes and shovels, he sent a fax to the FBI and NYPD and told them about technology that could sort the debris more efficiently.
"It would have taken years," Beck said of sorting by hand.
Authorities called back a few minutes after getting Taylor's fax in September.
"They said, 'Bring the machines and let's see how it works,' " recalled Taylor, 26, a Valley Central High School graduate who lives in Milton.
Taylor got a high-tech screener in Boston and conveyor belt equipment from Pennsylvania. His $2.7 million worth of equipment impressed officials.
Taylor's company was hired as a subcontractor and began operations Oct. 14. Taylor could stand to make millions of dollars when the job is finished, but the final bill won't be tallied until the job is completed, Taylor said.
Here's how the equipment works: Debris is moved from barges into trucks, which climb the landfill hill. The rubble is then scalped for big metal pieces, which are spread across an area the size of a football field and visually inspected.
The rest of the steel, concrete and debris gets dumped into Taylor's primary screening unit, which vibrates to separate the pieces. Items six inches or bigger go to one conveyor belt, while smaller pieces go to a second conveyor belt. A secondary screener filters out small dirt material.
Personal items found amid the chunks of concrete and steel on the conveyor belts are placed in a plastic bucket. Besides combing out body parts, agents find badges, social security cards, watches, wallets and children's clothing from a store. About 10,000 pieces of personal belongings have been recovered so far.
Police tag and number each personal item, hoping to reunite the belonging with family. The debris is being stockpiled at the landfill.
They even found a grenade, which was disposed of by the bomb squad, Beck said.
Some employees get "drained emotionally," Beck said. He noted operations were initially round-the-clock with workers manning two 12-hour shifts. The work is now done 6 a.m. to midnight, with workers toiling during two nine-hour shifts.
"One guy came to me and said, 'Enough,' " Beck recalled. "It's horrible."
Additional articles about C&D debris recycling by Taylor Recycling are available online.
REUSE-a-BUS — keeping reusable materials out of the wastestream
The Hudson Valley Materials
Exchange (HVME) 
has developed a unique mechanism for spreading the message about materials
reuse. Because of the unique focus of HVME—it's one of only two such
programs in New York—their services are difficult to visualize without
visiting the facility, and as a result, their services are underutilized
by the local community. To remedy this issue, HVME launched the “REUSE-A-BUS”
program that brings materials to teachers at their schools. The REUSE-A-BUS
allows HVME to take their environmental education mission on the road.
The program was designed to be financially self-sufficient within two
years through fees and corporate sponsorship. The project's first $70,000
has been raised from New York State Department of Environmental Conservation.
A tentative launch date for the project is Fall 2005, and is being piloted
in several communities and local districts before then.