# Drywall Recycling **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 17, 2012, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drywall-recycling/641264 "2012-11-17T01:06:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Ouizee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/58956e/32.png) [@Ouizee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ouizee)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2012, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drywall-recycling/641264/1 "2012-11-17T01:06:58Z")
Looking for a small portable crusher to deal with smaller amounts of drywall ---
**Author:** ![Hail\_Ants](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/dc4da7/32.png) [@Hail\_Ants](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hail_Ants)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2012, 5:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drywall-recycling/641264/2 "2012-11-17T05:27:56Z")
I don’t think you can compress sheetrock very much. It consists of gypsum powder (i.e. rock) and thick paper. Both of these are very dense materials and neither is easily compressible… ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2012, 7:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drywall-recycling/641264/3 "2012-11-17T07:30:43Z")
Perhaps the OP meant crush as in pulverise. Broken pieces of drywall probably don’t pack as well as crushed gypsum. ---
**Author:** ![HoneyBadgerDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/honeybadgerdc/32/1033_2.png) [@HoneyBadgerDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HoneyBadgerDC)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2012, 12:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drywall-recycling/641264/4 "2012-11-17T12:42:04Z")
Gypsum is very useful for breaking up hard clay soils. Not sure of the composition of drywall but it may be good to simply pulverize then return to soil. ---
**Author:** ![elbows](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b3f665/32.png) [@elbows](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elbows)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2012, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drywall-recycling/641264/5 "2012-11-17T14:47:05Z")
Yeah, look for a farmer. Lots of them recycle it into soil that needs the addition. Round here they don’t care if it’s broken up or pulverized! ---
**Author:** ![Dano83860](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a4c791/32.png) [@Dano83860](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dano83860)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2012, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drywall-recycling/641264/6 "2012-11-17T15:07:54Z")
A small garden shreader should do the trick. ---
**Author:** ![leadarrows](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/2acd7d/32.png) [@leadarrows](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/leadarrows)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2012, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drywall-recycling/641264/7 "2012-11-17T15:40:34Z")
I recycle drywall. It would be hard on a garden shredder. But for small amounts it might work. One issue is the dust it makes is intense. Air filters on engines quickly fill with the dust. I received a Google Alert off the keyword Drywall that lead me to this site in case your wondering where I came from. Here is a link to a story of how I recycle drywall. > **[Recycling gypsum](https://www.heraldbulletin.com/archives/recycling-gypsum/article_f33ba457-c6a4-57f2-8f74-7c4784eda91f.html)** > > For a decade, Randy Scott, owner of a hauling company Scott’s Dependable Services Inc., sent materials to a trash dump on Madison Avenue. Six of those years, Scott worked on Putting un-crushed drywall in fields makes a mess. Rain will release the paper backing and the results will be paper blowing all over in the wind, I know… I tried it and spent a week picking up paper from my neighbors fields. ---
**Author:** ![Ouizee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/58956e/32.png) [@Ouizee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ouizee)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2012, 7:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drywall-recycling/641264/8 "2012-11-18T07:06:05Z")
> [@Mangetout](#): > > Perhaps the OP meant crush as in pulverise. Broken pieces of drywall probably don’t pack as well as crushed gypsum. Exactly. Also transporting broken pieces from their origin, say 20 floors up an office tower, to their destination which could be a recognized recycling facility if available, is mucher harder and has more contingencies to account for. I submit ; if it was crushed or pulverized enough to compact into elevator friendly sized containers on large diameter casters, would be more efficient at getting it to same destination. So a unit that could get up same elevator is the idea. Thanks ---
**Author:** ![gotpasswords](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c57346/32.png) [@gotpasswords](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gotpasswords)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2012, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drywall-recycling/641264/9 "2012-11-18T21:07:04Z")
Solid-ish cylinders of the stuff would be wicked heavy. One regular sheet weighs, IIRC, about 75 pounds. I would much rather deal with large pieces that individually weigh less than 40 pounds than several hundred pounds of the stuff pulverized into dust. As noted above, you can’t really compact it. If anything, grinding it would be less efficient as it won’t be as dense as breaking it into small bits would add empty space. Trust me, if grinding up drywall was somehow beneficial to demolition work, someone would be doing it now. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2012, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drywall-recycling/641264/10 "2012-11-18T23:36:49Z")
I put half a sheet of drywall out in the yard behind my shed for a couple of months of rain and weather, and it melted; just collapsed into fragile little chalky lumps, easily disposed of.