State urged to recycle gypsum.

G-P Gypsum and United States Gypsum Co. (USG) have submitted letters to the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection in support of gypsum recycling at their New England wallboard manufacturing facilities.

The letters outline the two companies' current efforts to recycle the material and pledge to find ways to economically recycle more of the material. The idea is to help Massachusetts meet its goal of reducing non-municipal solid waste by 88 percent by 2010, as outlined in its solid waste master plan.

USG predicts it will take 16 to 18 months for it to get all the pieces in place to recycle more gypsum at its Charlestown, Mass., plant. Meanwhile, G-P, which already recycles some outside scrap gypsum at its Newington, N.H., plant, will try to implement steps to recycle more.

Gypsum is used to make building products that are used throughout North America, but is available as a mineral in some regions more than in others, depending on where potential and current mines are located.

According to figures from the United States Geological Survey (USGS), Reston, Va., the U.S. overall has a crude gypsum supply deficit. In January of 2004, building supply and other manufacturers consumed 2.1 million metric tons of gypsum, with only 1.35 million tons of that coming from within the U.S., while another 760,000 metric tons was imported from other nations.

Neighboring Canada (506,000 metric tons) and Mexico (168,000 metric tons) were the largest importers of gypsum to the U.S., while Spain was the only other major exporter, with 87,000 metric tons shipped that month.