The Fire Safety Recycling Implications of Abandoned Communications Cable in Buildings; Addressing and Defining Solutions

摘要

The National Electric Code recently adopted a new standard for the requirement to extract "abandoned cables" from commercial buildings. These abandoned cables are defined as "cables that have been disconnected and have no future use" and add a significant fire load to commercial buildings. Since the adoption of the plenum cable standard within the National Electric Code in 1975, these plenum areas or ceiling airspaces of commercial buildings have experienced an exponential growth in cable installation. Formerly useful or outmoded cable remains in the plenum areas and constitute abandoned cables. The accumulation of these cables, when not removed, adds potential fire load and have dramatic implications regarding a building's overall fire safety. It is the objective of this paper to assess the requirements of the National Electric Code as it relates to abandoned cable. The paper will assess the importance of reducing the fire load associated with this myriad of cable constructions and materials which have been abandoned in the plenum and riser spaces of commercial buildings. An assessment will be made on the most prevalent types of cables and the materials of construction. An economic assessment of the predominate materials relative to their recycle-ability is fundamentally reviewed along with summarizing traditional and newly evolving practices for recycling cabling materials. The ultimate goal remains "environmental stewardship" for the safe reuse of abandoned cable materials and recycling that can be associated and combined with ISO 14000 standards for Environmental Management Systems with suggested end-use applications for the abandoned cable materials "waste stream".