Flathead Electric

Oct 23, 2020

FCC Environmental Services awarded waste collection contract in Edgewood, Florida The total backlog for the contract is up to $12 million. The City of Edgewood, Florida has awarded Houston-based FCC Environmental Services the contract for the collection of solid urban waste for up to 20 years. The contract is also inclusive of the franchise to collect all the City´s commercial solid waste. Edgewood is located in Orange County, where the company already provides services, and has a significant presence with a large yard and its own Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) station, the fleet for this new contract will share the same depot and will also be gas powered. FCC Environmental Services continues its commitment to sustainability, with significant environmental advantages and providing important operational synergies to the contract. With this, FCC Environmental Services consolidates its presence in the state of Florida, where it provides services to more than one million inhabitants, including the waste collection service in Palm Beach, Florida. FCC's facilities in Omaha, Nebraska, including a new CNG supply station, have been already commissioned. The Omaha waste collection contract will start in November. The services that FCC will provide to this city reach a potential backlog of more than $500 million and will serve its more than 450,000 inhabitants over the next 20 years. Ontario to update Blue Box recycling program The province’s proposed updates to it municipal recycling program will expand the types of recyclables it accepts. Ontario plans to update its regulations for its Blue Box recycling program. According to a statement from the Ontario government’s website, the proposed regulations include expanding the items that can be recycled and making producers of products and packaging responsible for the waste they create. The new updated program will: standardize and increase the list of materials accepted in the Blue Box, including paper and plastic cups, wraps, foils, trays and bags as well as other single-use items such as stir sticks, straws, cutlery and plates; transition the costs of the program away from municipal taxpayers by making the producers of products and packaging fully responsible for costs, resulting in an estimated savings of $135 million annually for municipalities; expand Blue Box services to more communities, such as smaller, rural and remote communities, including those with less than 5,000 people; and set some of the highest diversion targets for the various categories of waste producers are expected to recycle such as paper, glass, beverage containers and rigid flexible plastic. According to the statement on the Ontario government’s website , the province is expanding its Blue Box services to facilities such as apartment buildings, long-term care homes, schools and municipal parks in 2026 to provide more opportunities to recycle and keep communities clean. The provincial government’s website states that the proposed Blue Box regulation draft will be posted for 45 days for public feedback, ending Dec. 2. “We’re creating a stronger and more effective Blue Box program that actually works,” says Jeff Yurek, minister of the Environment, Conservation and Parks for Ontario. “By harnessing the innovation and ingenuity of industry and expanding recycling opportunities for people and businesses across the province, we can divert more waste away from landfills by finding new purposes for products and reinserting them back into the economy.” Recycle Track Systems Inc. (RTS) , New York City, announced on Oct. 22 that it has acquired Newark, New Jersey-based Industrial Organic PBC (doing business as Ambrosia). Ambrosia is a closed-loop manufacturing company that turns food waste into circular products and commodities. According to RTS, this acquisition, which is the company’s third since launching in 2015, helps further its commitment to sustainable solutions for waste management. As a waste and environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) consulting partner for corporations, RTS says it plans to strengthen its focus on advancing sustainability initiatives in materials management at scale. With organic waste being the top contributor to landfills at nearly 80 billion pounds disposed of in the U.S. annually, the deal with Ambrosia will allow the company to bring circular services to its client-base more broadly, it says. “As one of Ambrosia’s early partners, we believed in their circularity mission from the start,” RTS CEO Greg Lettieri says. “We are proud to have coordinated more than 120 tons of food waste to be put back into the economy through our partnership, and now, have an opportunity to change the entire landscape of food waste processing with Ambrosia’s innovative foundation.” Ambrosia was founded in 2014 to tackle the country’s growing food waste problem. According to RTS, the company is “most known for developing a revolutionary process to stabilize and isolate the compounds of organic material, including the water, to create a non-toxic and sustainable cleaning product. The product, Veles, was introduced into the consumer market earlier this year with notable success.” “A recent analysis of solutions to limit global warming identified food waste reduction as the most impactful due to the CO2 emissions produced when it decomposes in a landfill,” Amanda Weeks, former Ambrosia CEO and cofounder who now works for RTS, says. “There are many important opportunities to rethink manufacturing of everyday goods by using byproducts of our existing resources. We plan to convert municipal and commercial food waste into value-add products with established markets, utilizing 100 percent of this complex, yet promising, feedstock. By having the technology, waste management and environmentally centered capabilities of RTS, we are thrilled to be able to innovate together on solving these major waste issues.” In addition to Veles, the acquisition includes Ambrosia’s assets—a 12,000-square-foot production facility based in Newark and several patent applications that will fold into RTS’s product and development portfolio. As the company aims to make circular processing more accessible, RTS is also emphasizing waste diversion solutions with the recent launch of  zerowaste.com . The site offers both individuals and businesses content, tips, zero waste products and educational guides to educate on zero waste best practices. “Bringing the reality of our global waste challenges front and center is always top-of-mind for us,” Lettieri says. “With the platform zerowaste.com, we can make connections with a wider audience and share the expertise we have [regarding] reuse and reduction with homes, communities and businesses. Going ‘zero waste’ does not happen overnight, but having an accessible resource that provides transparency is going to be essential in addressing our single-use dependency and in helping to change the mindset about our country’s waste production.” A proposal by Phoenix-based Republic Services to convert gas from the Missoula County, Montana, landfill to clean electricity won the official support of the county on Oct. 20, reports the Missoula Current . While details are few and the project isn’t yet firm, county officials said the proposal by Republic Services would go far in helping the Missoula urban area achieve its goals of operating off 100 percent clean electricity by 2035. “Republic has discussed this possibility in the past with some of the electric co-operatives as possible off-takers of that electricity,” Diana Maneta, the county’s energy conservation and sustainability coordinator, told the Missoula Current. “This would be supportive of the city and county’s joint goal of 100% clean electricity.” Republic Services operates 75 renewable energy projects across the country, according to the company. Its 68 gas-to-energy projects at various landfills generate enough renewable energy to fully power more than 250,000 homes each year. The facilities collect landfill gas and convert it to a clean, renewable fuel. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), one Republic conversion at a Texas landfill reduces greenhouse gas emissions equal to more than 51,000 cars. A similar process is being explored for the Missoula landfill. “It’s a way to use the gas that seeps out of landfills from the decomposition of the waste,” said Maneta. “Rather than flaring that gas off, which is what Republic currently does at the Missoula landfill, they can use that gas to generate electricity.” While Republic Services doesn’t operate any gas-to-energy projects at its Montana landfills, Flathead County operates its own. The county, in collaboration with Flathead Electric Co-Op , Kalispell, Montana, partnered on what became Montana’s first methane gas-to-energy project in 2009. According to Flathead Electric, the plant generates enough electricity to serve up to 1,600 homes. It was made possible with $3.5 million in Clean Renewable Energy Bonds. The process burns the gas in an engine that drives a 1.6-megawatt electric generator connected directly to Flathead Electric’s distribution system. “In terms of the gas fields, or how much gas is seeping out, Republic had suggested they could accommodate two generators of the size the Flathead landfill has in Missoula,” Maneta said. The board of directors of Avis Industrial Corp., headquartered in Upland, Indiana, has announced that Greg King has been named the company’s new president and CEO, effective immediately. King has spent the last four-and-a-half years as president and general manager of Harris, a wholly owned subsidiary of Avis that is based in Cordele, Georgia, with additional operations in Baxley, Georgia, and sales and engineering offices in Wiltshire, U.K. The search for a new leader at Harris is in process, but in the interim, King will continue to manage Harris in his role as president and CEO of Avis, the company notes in a news release about his promotion. Prior to joining Harris and Avis, King worked at WestRock, formerly Rock- Tenn Co., Atlanta, from 1989 through 2015 in various senior executive roles. “I feel Greg is a very good fit for Avis and the unique group of companies Leland has built over the years,” says Ron McDaniel, chairman of the Avis board. “I promised Leland I would step in on an interim basis if needed, and I feel good about honoring that commitment. It is now time for Avis to move forward with a full-time, engaged leader and continue developing and growing what Leland was so passionate about.” McDaniel is referring to Leland Boren, the former chairman, president and CEO of Avis who died  in November 2018. “I am honored to be given the opportunity to lead Avis Industrial and its diverse portfolio of companies,” King says. “I look forward to working with the team in Upland, Indiana, and at each of our subsidiaries. To say I am excited would be an understatement; we will work together to make a great company even better.” In addition to Harris, the Avis family of companies includes American Baler and Sellick Equipment Ltd.