Construction and demolition waste recyclers awarded

Two nationally-noted Big Diverter Awards were presented in October at the third annual WasteCap Wisconsin R3 Awards. Mortenson Construction and LaMacchia Group received the Big Diverter Awards for their excellent recycling rates.

Mortenson Construction received the Big Diverter Award in the construction category for the new $189 million Aurora Medical Center in Summit. The project consists of the Aurora Medical Center and the Aurora Medical Office Building and Cancer Center, and which achieved a 94.94 percent project recycling rate.

Brad Folkert, Mortensons’ construction executive in lieu of the Project Manager credits the high recycling rate to WasteCap’s senior project manager Ralph McCall.

Folkert also gave credit to the 600 people who work on the site everyday for taking responsibility for the environment. They understand the importance of recycling and how to do it correctly. They have paid close attention to not mixing materials in dumpsters, which would contaminate the load, causing the hauler to rule the entire dumpster as trash.

The LaMacchia Group received the Big Diverter Award in the demolition category for reusing and recycling 96.55 percent of the demolition debris from an office and retail complex in Milwaukee’s Historic Third Ward.

Mortenson Construction was also the recipient this year of WasteCap Wisconsin’s Outstanding Commitment Award for their commitment to recycling on their sites and their experience and success in recycling. Mortenson recycles construction and demolition debris even when they are not required. Their projects recycle, according to the Company, because, “it’s the right thing to do”.

The Wisconsin Department of Administration, Division of State Facilities was awarded the Outstanding Partnership Award for its role in sharing WasteCap’s vision of transforming waste into resources. The Division of State Facilities is working to incorporate recycling on all State of Wisconsin projects. They are working in partnership with WasteCap and with the support of the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources to develop methods, documentation and trained staff to result in successful recycling on State of Wisconsin projects.

City Wide Recycling’s co-owner John Hansen was present to receive the Innovative Achievement award for the firm’s trail-blazing initiative, taken in establishing the first-in-the-state facility which takes mixed construction debris and separates it for recycling.