Partners in recycling.

* National Gypsum Co. has entered into an agreement with Gypsum Recycling International to buy wallboard scrap reclaimed from new construction sites in Massachusetts and New Hampshire. The program will begin this fall. National Gypsum will use the scrap wallboard at its Portsmouth, N.H., plant.

Gypsum Recycling International, headquartered in Denmark, will collect the waste wallboard and crush it. GRI has had a similar system operating successfully in conjunction with wallboard manufacturers in Scandinavia for the past three years.

"By reprocessing the material, National Gypsum will divert waste wallboard, which would otherwise have been sent to landfills, into a productive and environmentally friendly use," says Jerry Carroll, senior vice president, National Gypsum. "The company will divert up to 30,000 tons of waste gypsum to its Portsmouth plant alone. We will begin the project in Massachusetts and New Hampshire and plan to expand it throughout the northeast as circumstances allow."

After the pilot program in the northeast is successfully established, National Gypsum will work with GRI to evaluate similar opportunities in other areas in the U.S.

National Gypsum has a network of 31 plants in North America, in addition to its own paper mills and gypsum mines and quarries.

Gypsum Recycling International is a privately owned company specializing in gypsum recycling systems. The company was established in 2001.