Construction & Demolition Debris Handling and Recovery Facilities
A construction & demolition debris handling and recovery facility (CDDHRF) is a publicly or privately owned facility that receives uncontaminated construction and demolition debris (C&D debris) generated/excavated from construction, remodeling, repair, or demolition of structures, buildings and roads, and land clearing. This includes waste materials such as concrete, brick, soil, wood, wallboard, tile, roofing shingles, and asphalt pavement. A CDDHRF might store these wastes, process them to extract recyclable or reusable materials, store recovered materials, or carry on any combination or all of these activities.
Waste materials that are not considered C&D debris (even if generated from construction, remodeling, repair and demolition activities) include municipal solid waste, friable asbestos-containing waste, garbage, corrugated container board, electrical fixtures containing hazardous liquids such as fluorescent light ballasts or transformers, fluorescent lights, carpeting, furniture, appliances, tires, drums, fuel tanks, containers greater than 10 gallons in size and any containers having more than one inch of residue remaining on the bottom. A CDDHRF is prohibited from receiving these wastes, or if they are received, they must be removed as soon as possible for disposal.
Type of CDDHRFs
In general, when considering opening a CDDHRF, applicants will have to determine whether to submit a registration or a permit application. Based on the following characteristics, applicants can determine which application they will have to complete and which regulatory requirements the facility must follow. As of August 2022, there are approximately 561 CDDHRFs located in New York, of which 92 are permitted and 469 are registered facilities. To locate CDDHRFs near you, refer to the Interactive Map of CDDHRFs All CDDHRFs, if not exempt (for example, operated on the site of C&D debris generation), must have either a valid registration or a permit to operate legally in New York State.
Registration
Registered CDDHRFs must accept less than 500 tons of C&D debris per day based on a weekly average including, but is not limited to any of the following uncontaminated waste materials:
- Concrete and other masonry materials (including steel or fiberglass reinforcing embedded in concrete), brick, and rock
- Asphalt pavement or asphalt millings
- Asphalt roofing shingles and roofing paper (must contain no asbestos)
- Gypsum wallboard
- Unadulterated wood (cannot include painted, treated or coated wood, or glued wood such as plywood or fiberboard products)
- Soil, sand, gravel, or rock (The soil must have no evidence of chemical or physical contamination such as impacts from spill events, or visual or other indication (odors, etc.) of chemical or physical contamination.)
- Fill material intended for Restricted-use or Limited-use Fill
- Source-separated recyclables generated from C&D debris, for use under an approved case-specific Beneficial Use Determination (BUD) (see the Beneficial Use Determinations (BUDs) webpage or 6 NYCRR-NY 360.12 for information on BUDs)
Facilities can accept multiple types of wastes under the above registrations, provided each waste must be received, processed, and stored separately. However, a registered CDDHRF may not accept both waste group 6 above (soil, sand, gravel, or rock) and waste group 7 (restricted-use or limited-use fill material) materials at the same facility.
See 6 NYCRR-NY 361-5.2 for the full criteria for the registered CDDHRFs and 6 NYCRR-NY 361-5.4 for design and operating requirements for CDDHRFs. Registration application form (PDF).
Permit
Pursuant to 6 NYCRR-NY 361-5.3, facilities that do not meet the criteria for any of the registered CDDHRFs must apply for a permit application. See 6 NYCRR-NY 361-5.4 for CDDHRF design and operating requirements. A copy of the permit application form (PDF).
NOTE: On April 27, 2022, an enforcement discretion letter (EDL) was issued to address provisions of the Part 360 Series regulations that affect certain registration and permitting requirements for CDDHRFs. This EDL (PDF) can be downloaded. The Parts 360-366 And 369, Solid Waste Management webpage contains a summary of the EDL and other Clarifications.
Annual Reporting
All registration/permit holders are required to submit either a registered or permitted CDDHRF annual report to the Department each year before March 1st. These annual reports include the amount and service area of solid waste received, broken down by individual waste type on Section 2 and 3, Section 4 - Disposal destination of the waste, Section 5 - Material recovered for reuse/recycling, and Section 6 - Unauthorized solid waste. For detail about reporting requirements, see 6 NYCRR-NY 361-5.5 and 6 NYCRR-NY 360.19(k)(3).
Blank annual report forms for the current year—Registered facilities (PDF) and Permitted facilities (PDF). Annual reports from previous years are available on the Department's FS site.
Inspection
All CDDHRFs are required to be inspected each year to ensure that the facilities are compliance with the full criteria requirements of the registered/permitted CDDHRFs. Blank C&D Debris Handling and Recovery Facility Inspection Report form (PDF).
C&D Debris Tracking Document
Shipments of C&D debris not being used under a beneficial use determination (BUD) must include a Tracking Document that includes the name of a CDDHRF or other source of the C&D debris, the name of the transporter, intended destination of the material, and other information. For more information about the tracking document, see the Waste Transporters page.
