MOUNT WILLIAM
Clean wallboard will now be turned into compost.
Pictou County Solid Waste has a special container in its construction and demolition site that will allow people to put clean wallboard in the designated area so that it can be later shredded and made part of compost on the site.
Wallboard is commonly known as Gyproc, gypsum board, sheet rock and drywall.
“We are talking strictly about clean wallboard with no paint, new screws or nails,” said Susan MacDonald of Pictou County Solid Waste. “Rather than throwing it in with the regular waste we are getting people to separate it, we will size it by putting it through a shredder and we will be adding it our organic material that comes from the green carts.”
She said the wallboard will absorb a lot of the moisture in the organics and will be a good addition to the compost.
“Before we started doing this it was buried in the ground but this is a good source to bulk up our organic material and it is saving landfill space,” she said.
MacDonald said it will help the local landfill site up its organic count because wallboard is heavy when it gets wet, and the change will also reduce the amount of waste going into the landfill.
The wallboard can come wet or dry to the container because it will be stored in an open container until it is taken to the compost facility.
This is the third new program that Pictou County Solid Waste has recently started. It has allowed cat litter to be placed in compost bins and Styrofoam to be included in recycling.
MacDonald said both have been a success so far and she hopes the wallboard will catch on as quickly as the other two.
Did you know:
2,500 tonnes of clean wallboard are disposed of annually in Nova Scotia.
During construction, one of pound of wallboard waste is produced from each square foot of covered wall.
