American Gypsum Recycling Wallboard

Sometimes things work like they should. Landfill tipping fees go up to pay for better environmental protection, making it more expensive to throw things away. That means it's more economical to pay someone less than the tipping fee to take away the product for recycling. Recyclers make money on both ends, paid to recycle and paid for the recycled product.

Here's a story about American Gypsum recycling unused wallboard as a soil amendment and as cattle bedding.

“At our plant we grind it up, separate the gypsum from the paper into two streams. The gypsum is pulverized and the paper is shredded into one to two inch pieces used for animal bedding,” Sauder explained. “There’s good demand for animal bedding. It’s very absorbent and takes the place of wood shavings or straw.”

USA’s Gypsum’s products come in three forms packed in 40 or 50 pound bags. A granular size can be spread with any fertilizer or lime spreader. Pulverized product is spread with Vicon-type spreaders, or drop and lime spreaders. Ultra-Fine is applied manually. Bag prices range from $3.95 to $4.50. It is sold primarily to produce farmers.

Only unused wallboard is taken back; demolition drywall has too great a risk of being contaminated with lead paint or something else. Still, one would hope that someone will come up with a way to economically test it and use it as well, as there's plenty of it being discarded now.