Tennessee approves use of ADC made from C&D fines.

The Tennessee Department of Environmental Conservation (TDEC) has approved the use of an alternative daily cover (ADC) product made of C&D debris for the state's biggest landfill. It is the second such approval of ADC made from C&D material in the state.

The latest approval is at Allied Waste's Middle Point Landfill, which, according to Mike DeMarco, the company's district manager for Kentucky and Tennessee, handles 4,300 tons of MSW every day. As such, it is the largest landfill in the state and highly visible.

DeMarco says the DEC "worked with the vendor to determine whether the product met the state's qualifications for alternative daily cover."

Glen Pugh, solid waste program manager for TDEC, says the approval came after two trial periods. The first was 45 days, with the final evaluation period being nearly four months.

"We were primarily concerned with the use of the material because it starts out as a waste material before it is processed," says Pugh. "We wanted to make sure there were no issues related to stormwater runoff at the landfill. We also wanted to allow Allied time to evaluate whether there would be any hydrogen sulfide gas generation that would foul up the landfill's gas extraction system," he continues. "They have a gas-to-energy facility there, and if there is any sulfur in the gas, it might give them some problems. So far we have not seen any of that."

DeMarco agrees with that assessment. "So far it has worked out well. Its cost is comparative to what it is costing us for other alternative daily covers." The other covers Middle Point is using include a poiyshell, auto fluff, mulch and some onsite dirt.

Allied has experimented with mixing the C&D product with auto fluff and ground-up wood debris, all of which the company has found satisfactory.

The Middle Point approval to use ADO made from C&D material is the second such instance in the state, the first being a Waste Management landfill in Lewisburg, Tenn.

The vendors of the ADC are different for each facility. Neither ADO provider is under any restriction from the state to remove gypsum before processing, nor are there limits on organic content in the product.

The supplier of the ADO for Middle Point is CMRA member Tennessee Waste in Nashville, which has been recycling C&D for five years.

Phillip Nappi, president, says the company had been pulling out the metal, wood, COO and aggregate. The use of the ADO product is the company's second success in finding a market for the fines. "Two years ago we worked with Tom Roberts (immediate past president of the CMRA) to work with the TDEC about getting a blanket approval to use the fines in land use applications, exclusive of ADC," says Nappi. "We did have one other success in that short space of time."

That project used fines as a fill material at a residential development. Enough material was used to fill up to 2-feet deep with 1 1/2-inch material. It had to be capped with 2 inches of topsoil and then sodded over.

"What these projects show is that C&D fines can be used successfully when handled properly," says Nappi.