The Armstrong Ceiling Recycling Program Is Celebrating Its 10th Anniversary!

Working together with our customers, over 80 million square feet of discarded ceiling tiles have already been diverted from landfills

Armstrong Ceilings introduced the industry's first ceiling recycling program back in 1999. And, thanks to customer support, it's now the biggest program in the industry.

To give you some idea of the impact the program has had on the environment, consider the fact that more than 80,000,000 square feet of discarded ceiling tiles have been recycled since the program began. That's 40,000 tons or more than 11,000 dumpsters full of construction waste that would have normally been taken to landfills.

In case you're not familiar with the program, it enables building owners and managers to ship mineral fiber and fiberglass ceilings from renovation projects to one of our ceiling plants as an alternative to landfill disposal.

As part of the program we even pay the freight costs for shipping the ceilings back to our plant. The old ceilings then become part of a closed loop process in which they are, in turn, used to manufacture new ceilings.

Ceiling Recycling Process Involves Four Steps

The process itself for recycling old ceilings involves four steps. First, provisions for ceiling recycling should be included in your project specifications or construction waste management plan.

The Armstrong Ceiling Recycling Program enables building owners to ship old ceilings to an Armstrong ceiling plant instead of to a landfill.

Second, you or your contractor needs to verify with us that the old ceiling tiles can be recycled. The old tiles do not have to be Armstrong products to qualify for the program.

Third, following verification, the old ceiling tiles must be stacked on pallets and shrink wrapped or tightly banded for pick-up

Fourth, once there is a full trailer load of old ceilings, simply contact us, and we'll arrange for a truck to pick up the material and transfer it to our nearest manufacturing facility.

By the way, the process for recycling old ceilings has proven to be nearly as fast as dumping them, so the program has little, if any, adverse impact on renovation schedules. It can also be less costly than dumping because it eliminates landfill fees, dumpster costs, and the expense associated with transportation.

Program Partners Are Many and Varied

Participants in our ceiling recycling program currently range from educational institutions such as Penn State University, to retail establishments such as Food Lion supermarkets, to corporations such as Microsoft and Nike.

A variety of government facilities participate as well. At Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, OH, for example, ceiling recycling is standard procedure for all renovation projects. The base initiated the program six years ago, and has already recycled 1,170,000 square feet of old ceiling tiles.

"Our objective is to remove as much as we can from the waste stream," states Martin Nicodemus, an environmental scientist with the base's Environmental Management Division. "As a result, we are continually evaluating avenues that allow us to cost effectively divert solid waste from landfills. Recycling ceilings has provided us with an excellent opportunity to do that."

Renovation Projects Include Ceiling Recycling

Ceiling recycling is also a key component of all renovation projects at the corporate campus of Pfizer in midtown Manhattan. Pfizer has been part of the program since 2002 and has recycled nearly 2,000,000 square feet of old ceiling tiles to date.

Mal Schuster, a senior project engineer involved in office renovations at Pfizer, notes that there is also an economic benefit to recycling ceilings in addition to all the environmental benefits.

"By removing ceiling tiles early, we're able to view the conditions in the plenum and see potential problems that we didn't anticipate. We can spot conditions that would not have been seen until demolition. As a result, we can include that work in the original project scope instead of a change-order, thereby reducing costs."

Program Enhancements Facilitate Participation

To help you facilitate the program, we've also initiated two helpful services. The first is a Recycling Consolidation Network of contractors who will pick up smaller, less-than-truckload quantities of tiles and store them at their facility until there is a full trailer.

The second is a network of Certified Ceiling Recycling Contractors specially trained in implementing the program's requirements. They are also trained in other waste management techniques, as well as the contribution of ceiling recycling to LEED® Construction Waste Management credits.

As you can see, by working together, we can help preserve natural resources and reduce environmental impact. It's easy, it works and it's the right thing to do.

If you have questions or need additional information about the program, we can help. Just call 1-877-ARMSTRONG (1-877-276-7876) or visit armstrong.com/recycling.