Green dumpster in my driveway!

I arrived home tonight to find a big, green dumpster in my driveway. It had the word "Gypsum" on it. I couldn't call my builder to find out more info, because he's on vacation for two weeks. Before he left we talked about gypsum recycling, but I hadn't heard that he found a solution. Last week I was at a WasteWise conference (www.epa.gov/wastewise), and someone mentioned you could recycle wallboard at US Gypsum in Cambridge. That's all the info I provided him. I asked him what they normally do with drywall waste and he said they just throw it into the dumpster and landfill it. And a lot of waste is generated, even with my small house (1250 sq. ft.).

I zipped into the house to learn more about the dumpster. My most pressing question--what is this costing me? Is there any chance the recycling is free, since the recycled material is a valuable commodity to gypsum manufacturers? Alas, it will be almost two weeks before I know the answer to this.

I found a picture of my green dumpster at www.GypsumRecycling.biz. The company is Danish, and just launched (fall 2005) a pilot program with US Gypsum and National Gypsum and the pilot city is Boston, lucky me. They grind the leftover wallboard and sell it to the two companies as the raw material for their new product. The press release on their website says that the equivalent of 40,000 cars in wallboard are landfilled EACH DAY worldwide. It's good to know there are real alternatives to this practice. Hey, if they're willing to send their green dumpster 30 miles west of Boston, they should be able to make some great inroads in this market.

I'll report back when I have the cost info.