Recycled aggregate use bill supported by ARO

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Published on Thursday, 09 May 2013 02:13

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A private members bill that would prohibit restricting the use of recycled aggregate in all construction contracts by public sector bodies is receiving praise from the head of Aggregate Recycling Ontario (ARO).

“We need to continue to encourage everyone to talk about aggregate recycling,” said Moreen Miller, ARO executive director and president and chief executive officer of the Ontario Stone, Sand and Gravel Association.

“Toronto, especially the GTA (Greater Toronto Area), is becoming a big city and we need to act like one. We need to take advantage of our resources that can be recycled and a big part of that is aggregate.”

Bill 56, An Act to prohibit certain restrictions on the use of aggregates in performing public sector construction work, was introduced by Progressive Conservative MPP for Dufferin-Caledon Sylvia Jones and passed first reading in the Ontario Legislature on Earth Day, April 22.

“Ontario residents also expect that, where appropriate, recycled aggregates will be fairly considered in all construction contracts entered into by the government of Ontario and the broader public sector. This allows for a better balance between the need for primary aggregate extraction and secondary aggregate recycling in Ontario,” said Jones at Queen’s Park.

Currently, bids can be turned down if they call for the use of recycled aggregates in a construction project.

Jones pointed out that several public sector bodies, such as the Ministry of Transportation and some municipalities, are incorporating recycled aggregates into their construction work, but more can be done.

“There are still too many cases where bids to complete public sector construction work are restricted to using only 100 per cent virgin or primary aggregates, thereby excluding recycled materials from being considered,” she said.

“Recycled aggregates have proven to be as safe and reliable as primary aggregates.

No one should be prevented from competing for a contract solely because they propose to use recycled aggregates.”

With the recent cancellation of the “mega-quarry” in Melancthon, Ont., construction industry leaders are worried about the increased cost pressures for aggregates. “Recycling will take some of the pressure off of some of our existing quarries and the demand for new quarries. That’s the most important thing,” said Geoff Wilkinson, executive director of the Ontario Road Builders’ Association (ORBA), which is part of the ARO.

Recycling allows virgin aggregates to go further when they are needed, said Miller. “Recycled aggregates can fill that bill 90 per cent of the time, which leaves the primary aggregates that we really need for high end construction applications available to do that,” she said.

A 2012 survey of 119 Ontario municipalities found that 77 per cent of respondents allowed the use of recycled aggregates, though only 41 per cent of respondents said they encouraged such use through tenders and procurement policies.

About 53 per cent of municipalities said they allowed recycled aggregates to be used interchangeably with primary aggregates.

Thirty-four per cent of respondents said their planning documents do not allow aggregate recycling activities in pits and quarries and of those who did allow it, 83 per cent said they did not allow it outside of licensed pits and quarries.

“We still have a significant challenge ahead of us in having facilities in which to do this aggregate recycling,” said Miller. “I think Sylvia’s bill speaks directly to the fact that we need to change our outlook.”

Wilkinson said a big concern is that there are inconsistencies in municipalities around asphalt testing.

“We’d like to see that testing is done to ensure that specifications are met so that we’ve got a consistent level playing field and we have good asphalt as a result of that,” he said.

“For the most part, what’s out there is good, but unfortunately there’s always a case or two where it’s not up to the specifications.”

Aggregate recycling has been in Ontario since the 1970s.

Miller said from the asphalt perspective, the industry is doing a good job of taking up asphalt from roads and reconstituting it and putting it back on roads, but there is not yet a method to take concrete, crush it up and make new concrete out of it again.

While the construction sector has done a “pretty good job” at using materials that have been produced sustainably, Miller says the industry is not yet good at managing the full life cycle of an operation.

Miller hopes the bill’s second reading will occur before the Ontario Legislature’s summer break.

By Kelly LaPointe

Published in the Daily Commercial News, May 8, 2013

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