CRRA 2023 Conference and Trade Show

Director of Environmental Affairs

Richard Ludt is the Director of Environmental Affairs at Interior Removal Specialist, Inc., and currently sits on the Board of the Construction and Demolition Recycling Association where he holds the position of Chair of the Legislative Committee. Richard came to the construction industry after a long career in the entertainment industry and has become a recognized expert in the field of recycling construction and demolition debris. Richard is responsible for complying with California’s heavily regulated solid waste ordinances and coordinates the extensive efforts involved for the recycling of the various construction debris obtained from tenant improvement demolition projects, including E-Waste, Acoustic Ceiling Tiles, carpeting, and over 450,000,000 pounds of drywall. Richard oversaw the permitting of the IRS construction and demolition processing facility in the City of South Gate and continues to find new markets for the unique debris generated in the commercial interior construction and demolition industries. In the past Richard sat on the board of the US Green Building Council Los Angeles Chapter and held the position of Corporate Director of Recycling and Material Recovery for the Solid Waste Association of North America (SWANA) for 12 years.

Construction and Demolition Recycling in a Circular Economy

Construction and Demolition debris makes up nearly 50% of all solid waste entering our landfills. As the largest segment of the waste stream, development of an energetic circular economy for the construction and demolition debris industry is essential to recapturing valuable resources and preventing pollution and achieving zero waste and other sustainability goals pursued by many entities.

Currently, lower hazard C & D materials are the most common materials regularly diverted from landfilling. These include concrete, asphalt, metals and wood. This diversion is often touted as a success story. However, significant volumes of materials not normally targeted by recyclers remain. These materials are often landfilled even though they tend to contain high-value raw materials and pose a greater threat of pollution.

A comprehensive transition to a circular economy for the construction and demolition industry presents many challenges. New markets need to be identified and developed for non-traditional materials, existing markets need to be expanded, manufacturers must change production methods, and the C & D debris industry needs to become more fluid and proactive. Appropriate standards need to be implemented to accurately qualify and quantify the materials and their recovery.

We will explore the non-traditional materials in the C&D waste stream and will discuss new and future markets for these materials. We will discuss best practices in collection, processing and marketing of recovered drywall, asphalt shingles, carpet, and other overlooked items. The participants will leave the session with a better understanding of C&D materials and what is currently being done, as well as useful information for increasing the diversion of this universal waste stream and steps to help develop a circular economy for C & D materials.
 

Vice President, LEED Associate

Brock Hill is the Vice President of Premier Recycle Company located in San Jose, CA and has been with the firm for 15 years. He is the current Vice President of the national Construction and Demolition Recycling Association, and an active member of the USGBC Materials and Resources Technical Advisory Group. As an outspoken proponent of intelligently decreased solid waste regulation, he advocates an ideal coined "Fair Market Recycling". Holding strong against anti-competitive legislation, his team was able to take a case to the US Supreme Court on the private property rights of C&D material. Brock holds a degree in Political Science from the University of CA, Irvine, and has been an active advisor on hundreds of certified sustainable construction projects across the Bay Area.

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Executive Director

Stephen M Bantillo has been in the recycling and resource management industry for over three decades. He assisted the Construction and Demolition Recycling Association (CDRA) in developing the National Standard Protocol (CORR) to provide third-party certification of C&D facilities. CDRA subsequently requested that he launch the Recycling Certification Institute (RCI) in California where he now serves as its Executive Director.

He created the nation’s first program to document and certify C&D material recycling facilities during his tenure with the City of San Jose. While there, he created and managed numerous innovative resource programs on materials management, economic modeling, and the flow of materials and finances.

Stephen was appointed to San Jose Unified School District’s Bond Oversight Committee, establishing protocols on construction funding of $429M and assisting the District with the greening of its construction projects. He is co-founder and past Chair of CRRA’s Construction & Demolition Council, and also served several years as CRRA's Executive Director.

Governor Schwarzenegger appointed Bantillo in 2007 to oversee California’s beverage container recycling program, which included management of the program’s $1.2 Billion annual budget and oversight of the certification and monitoring of thousands of recyclers.

Mr. Bantillo continues to work with public and private organizations as well as assist the building community applying an emphasis on increasing achievable material recovery performance with effective policy, practice, and regulation.

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Recycling Program Specialist III