Concrete Recycling was a cost factor on the Tampa Pier

Thanks to recycling, demolished Pier will live on in many form.

Much of the five-story inverted pyramid that is getting demolished will be recycled and live on in other projects, from roads to seawalls to infrastructure as far away as in China.
SCOTT KEELER | TIMES
Workers for Sonny Glasbrenner Inc. demolish the Pier’s outer walls with a 90-foot excavator.

Much of the five-story inverted pyramid that is getting demolished will be recycled and live on in other projects, from roads to seawalls to infrastructure as far away as in China.
SCOTT KEELER | TIMES
Workers for Sonny Glasbrenner Inc. demolish the Pier’s outer walls with a 90-foot excavator.
ST. PETERSBURG — Hacked, sawed, chopped, dismantled and sorted, the inverted pyramid that drew visitors from around the world will be scattered far and near.

Possibly China. Or as a base for Tampa Bay roads. Definitely shoring up the seawall at St. Petersburg’s historic airport.

For demolition contractor Sonny Glasbrenner Inc., almost every scrap of St. Petersburg’s discarded Pier represents dollars earned. That’s on top of the $3.2 million the city is paying the Clearwater firm to demolish the iconic pyramid along with its deck and bridge.

It’s the way of the demolition business, said Pate Clements, Glasbrenner’s president.

“If the city would have come to me and said the city retains all salvage rights, then the price would have been tremendously higher,” Clements said. “Because I don’t get the value of those things to resell.”

Clements declined to reveal how much salvaging the Pier is worth, but said markets for recyclables have deteriorated because of the downturn in China’s economy. The Chinese had become one of the biggest users of recycled material, he said.

Herb Duane, a demolition consultant and president of Duane Corp., a New England demolition firm, said different types of steel could command between $100 to $130 per gross ton, or 2,240 pounds. That’s a steep decline from recent prices, he said.

“Two years ago, the prices were around $300 a gross ton for steel, but the Chinese market has collapsed and there’s a big surplus of steel in the world,” he said.

The salvage rights arrangement with Sonny Glasbrenner is not unique, said Steve Cona III, president and chief executive officer of the Florida Gulf Coast Chapter of Associated Builders and Contractors.

“Demolition companies understand that by getting those rights, they can charge less to the user,” said Cona, whose group represents about 375 companies. “That’s becoming the standard.”

It’s typical in major demolitions to recycle many, if not most, of the materials, Cona said.

With the Pier, that means concrete from the approach and deck, with the reinforcing steel trimmed, will be trucked to Albert Whitted Airport to help restore its shoreline.

Copper, aluminum, brass, metal studs and steel are going directly to the Port of Tampa, to be sold to scrap buyers.

Glass, plastic, paper and insulation will also be trucked to its recycling center, where they will be separated and sold.

Hydraulic oils from elevators, fluorescent bulbs, ballasts, paints and thermostats have been sent to a company that handles hazardous material, but unlike the other materials, that costs Glassbrenner a fee.

Only carpeting and drywall will end up in a landfill, Clements said.

“It’s important that the construction industry has found a way that they can recycle the materials,” Cona said. “In the long run, it will be profitable for the industry. It’s a win-win both for the companies that embrace sustainability and for the environment.”

Small pieces of concrete, bricks and asphalt, processed at Glasbrenner’s “material recovery facility,” will end up as road base for streets and parking lots.

Asked whether that means the city would have to repurchase parts of the Pier for its roads, Clements said St. Petersburg does periodically buy road base from his company.

That happens very rarely, said Michael Ryle, the city’s assistant engineering director. St. Petersburg has much of its own material and recycles asphalt millings from its resurfacing program, which amounts to about 25,000 tons annually, he said. It’s used to maintain and rebuild alleys, he said, adding that the city also recycles concrete from construction work for base material.

But the city did get to keep some brick pavers from the Pier. Days before an excavator scraped them up, several hundred were collected to hand out to people who showed up for a farewell gathering for the inverted pyramid. The overwhelming response, which sent many away empty handed, forced a second collection of 400 additional bricks from the site.

The demolition is expected to be complete in February.

Contact Waveney Ann Moore at [email protected] or (727) 892-2283. Follow @wmooretimes.