A new plant decontaminates construction waste for reuse

Most contaminated waste materials generated from excavation of construction job sites are either buried in landfills or burned. There are fewer than 10 plants in the U.S. that wash and clean soil for reuse and legally dispose of contaminated fill. (That compares to more than 100 such sites in the United Kingdom and Europe.)

None of those U.S. plants were located between Long Island, N.Y., and Baltimore before the April 22 opening of a $40 million soil remediation facility on a six-acre site in South Philadelphia that, at full capacity, expects to process and repurpose over 700,000 tons of construction soil and waste annually.

The development partners behind this new Wash Plant are Alterra IOS and Eco Materials. Alterra IOS is the industrial and outdoor storage platform for the property management firm Alterra Property Group. Philadelphia-based Eco Materials, founded in 2022, provides safe and clean alternatives to disposal of construction-site waste. Ireland-based CDE Group is the new plant’s primary equipment manufacturer.

The Wash Plant “represents the future of construction,” said Leo Addimando, Alterra IOS’s Cofounder and Managing Partner, in a prepared statement. Andrew Paluszkiewicz, Eco Materials’ Managing Partner and Director of Operations, added that what sets this plant apart is “our byproduct becomes a sellable product.”

According to a video that Alterra created for Vimeo (click here to view), the Philadelphia Wash Plant consists of a series of different machines: sorters, shakers, screeners, log rollers. The waste being processed is separated and screened based on particle size. The equipment extracts rock and sand fragments, and then consolidates down to the silts to wash out the contaminants.

The plant has the capacity to process 250 truckloads per day. Using reclaimed stormwater and wet-processing technology, the plant cleans and sorts soil, and regenerates 85% of inbound material into high-quality sand and aggregate for reuse, including clean-washed 3/8-inch and ¾-inch stone, ballast stone, C33 concrete sand, and fine mason sand.

Alterra IOS and Eco Materials claim that the Wash Plant—which has its own AcquaCycle water-treatment system—produces zero contamination, discharge, or pollution.

A sustainable solution

The partners assert that no other city in the U.S. has a facility where contaminated soil can be properly disposed of and where cleansed sand and aggregate can be purchased at the same time.

They emphasize the sustainability benefits of opening a Wash Plant that reduces the significant portion of construction waste that currently ends up at landfills. Transportation costs factor in, too, because disposal facilities are typically getting located farther away from where the soil comes from.

Alterra IOS and CDE Group are partnering on several wet-processing plants including one in the Dallas-Fort Worth market that’s under construction.