While Natura PCR will remain independent, working with WM will help it increase its PCR feedstock, while WM will expand its end market for plastic film.
WM, Houston, has announced that it has agreed to acquire a controlling interest in Houston-based Avangard Innovative’s U.S. business, which will operate as Natura PCR—an independent company expected to scale and grow recycling capacity to produce an estimated 400 million pounds per year of postconsumer resin (PCR) in five years. The transaction is expected to close in late 2022, subject to the satisfaction of customary closing conditions, including regulatory approvals. Through Natura PCR, WM says it expects to deliver new recycling capabilities for its customers and provide circular solutions for films and clear plastic wrap used commercially, such as plastic stretch wrap for pallets, furniture film, grocery bags, and potentially shrink wrap around food and beverage containers. “WM’s controlling interest in Natura PCR positions us to grow and scale rapidly in the emerging PCR space,” WM President and CEO Jim Fish says. “WM’s core material supply capabilities, with the head start and knowledge provided by Avangard’s U.S. business, will help Natura PCR quickly deliver circular options to WM’s customers as an important component of our continued growth strategy in recycling. Today, there is so much untapped potential to reuse film—which impacts many of our commercial customers. We can help our customers close the loop and bring more recycled materials to the store shelf.” Leading materials science company, Dow, Midland, Michigan, has been working with WM to help increase the recycling rate of plastics and create sustainable solutions in packaging, infrastructure and consumer applications. Dow also has been working with Avangard Innovative since early 2020, purchasing the company’s PCR pellets to produce Revoloop, Dow’s product line with PCR content. “We have been working with both companies to increase the use of recycled plastic in Dow’s products, and Natura PCR brings together capabilities that will unlock more options for hard-to-recycle plastics for the industry,” says Nestor de Mattos, North America commercial vice president of packaging and specialty plastics at Dow. “Natura PCR further expands at scale, waste-to-market solutions across North America and advances our goal to help divert plastics from landfills to circular solutions.” Natura PCR will focus on the mechanical recycling of film and flexible plastics—some of the most complex plastics in the recycling stream today—and convert these materials to PCR that can be used to manufacture new products replacing virgin materials. These streams comprise almost a quarter of today’s plastic generation, but only about 5 percent is recycled today. Demand for PCR is expected to grow in response to consumer-packaged goods companies’ commitments to use recycled content and pressures from consumers and regulators to increase the PCR content in the packaging materials the companies manufacture. WM has demonstrated a track record of collecting materials from commercial streams for the feedstock needed to produce PCR content and expects its materials sourcing expertise will enable it to increase the supply of PCR pellets that Natura PCR can produce for use in new products. “This transaction helps the business quickly scale operations, maximize source feedstock and meet the continued rise in demand for environmental additives, such as recycled plastic resin,” Avangard Innovative CEO Rick Perez says. “After 30 years in the recycling business, WM’s significant involvement, coupled with the strong relationship with Dow and other customers, will set Natura PCR up to offer the most innovative end-to-end circular economy solution in the market.” WM says Natura PCR plans to expand its recycling capabilities at Avangard’s existing plant in Waller, Texas, and build new plant capacity in the Midwest. Natura PCR will be primarily owned and controlled by WM. Avangard and affiliated entities will hold a collective minority equity position in Natura PCR. WM says it expects to receive investment returns comparable to its previously announced automation investments in single-stream recycling.
The Recycling Today Media Group has contacted WM and Avangard for additional information on the transaction and will update this story.
Systems provider will install landfill gas-to-energy technology at Hartland Landfill in western Canada.
France-based Waga Energy and the Capital Regional District (CRD) say they are preparing a “high-capacity renewable natural gas (RNG) project at Hartland Landfill on Vancouver Island in British Columbia. The project marks Waga Energy’s first landfill gas project in that province and its fourth in Canada.
Waga Energy says its Canadian subsidiary has signed a contract with the CRD, one of 28 districts in British Columbia, to build the facility at Hartland Landfill. “The new production unit will leverage the Wagabox technology developed and patented by Waga Energy to produce RNG from landfill gas,” the Quebec company says. Waga Energy says its proposal came out on top following the CRD’s request for proposals last year.
The Hartland Landfill system is expected to go online in the second half of 2024. Once running, Waga Energy says the unit will be able to process 2,000 standard cubic feet per minutes (scfm) of landfill gas. Based on expected gas volumes, it will be producing up to 345,000 metric million British thermal units (mmBTU) of gas and will save an estimated 450,000 metric tons of CO2 equivalents from entering the atmosphere over the next 25 years (by replacing fossil-based natural gas), the company says.
CRD board chair Colin Plant says, “Adopting long-term solutions that reduce our region’s emissions is a crucial part of the CRD’s commitment to take meaningful action on climate change. Partnering with Waga Energy on the design, construction and operation of a state-of-the-art landfill gas upgrading facility marks a significant investment in the future sustainability of our region.”
Waga Energy CEO Mathieu Lefebvre says, “We are excited about the opportunity to work with the CRD to support British Columbia’s energy transition by enabling the production of significant amounts of competitively priced RNG. Over the past five years we have built, commissioned, and operated 13 units in Europe, allowing us to develop substantial know-how in the production of RNG from landfill gas. In the past 18 months alone, we have initiated five Wagabox projects in North America, so there is clearly growing interest in our technology.”
The Wagabox unit for the Hartland Landfill will be built in Quebec by Waga Energy’s Canadian subsidiary, with the exception of a cryogenic distillation module to be imported from France. The facility will be operated and maintained by Waga Energy for 25 years. The RNG produced by the unit will be sold by the CRD to Canadian utility FortisBC and injected into the gas grid via a pipeline extension.
The CRD encompasses 13 municipalities and serves a population of 432,000 on southern Vancouver Island and nearby Islands. It operates Hartland Landfill, which receives waste from residents across the region. The Wagabox unit will replace a gas-to-electricity plant that has been in operation at the landfill since 2004.
The organization proposes eight tactics taken from case studies across the country that can help minimize the material being landfilled and incinerated.
The state of Massachusetts throws out about 5.5 million tons of waste annually, but, of that, about 40 percent comprises “long-banned materials such as glass and metal containers, ferrous and non-ferrous metals, leaves and yard waste, recyclable paper, cardboard and paperboard, certain plastic containers, wood waste and tires,” all of which can and should be recycled, Zero Waste Massachusetts says in a recently released report.
“There is no silver bullet; we must deploy several tactics to reduce waste,” the report says. “With a spotlight on this problem, public education, increased resources from [Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection], better infrastructure and a commitment from municipalities, state legislators, the governor and other decision-makers, we can vastly improve the problem of too much banned waste going to landfills and incinerators.”
The report cites successes on the island of Nantucket, Massachusetts; in Seattle; in the state of Vermont; and in San Francisco where various measures have reduced the amount of material landfilled or incinerated.
Based on those case studies, Zero Waste Massachusetts recommends the state take the following steps to minimize the volume of material landfilled or burned:
“Our solid waste crisis requires that Massachusetts, along with the other states and cities … make better progress on reducing waste,” the report says. “Waste bans, properly implemented, reduce the amount of material sent for burial or burning. Waste bans are a critical tool to help us reduce the air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions associated with landfilling and incinerating waste, improve public health and prevent the need to build new solid waste facilities.”
The report analyzes fueling methods in terms of their energy usage, well-to-wheel greenhouse gas emissions, fuel cost, total cost and stage of commercialization.
The Solid Waste Association of North America’s (SWANA’s) Applied Research Foundation (ARF) has issued a report assessing the viability of electricity and other alternative fuels for solid waste and recycling collection vehicles.
According to a release from the association, the publication analyzes electricity, hydrogen fuel cells, compressed and renewable natural gas and ultra-low sulfur and renewable diesel in terms of their energy usage, well-to-wheel greenhouse gas emissions, fuel cost, total cost and stage of commercialization.
The report, “Evaluation of Electricity and Other Alternative Fuels for Solid Waste and Recycling Collection Vehicles,” follows the ARF report released in March 2022, “Efficient Management of Waste & Recycling Collection Resources,” which presented tools and best practices for streamlining collection operations.
“Considering the environmental impact and rising cost of diesel, it is important to evaluate alternatives available for solid waste and recycling collection trucks, which are among the lowest fuel economy of all over-the-road vehicles,” states David Biderman, SWANA executive director and CEO. “This new report provides collection fleet managers with useful data and analyses for the fuel options currently on the market,” Biderman adds.
“We are proud to be able to provide this in-depth report on this important and timely topic,” says Jeremy O’Brien, SWANA’s director of applied research. “SWANA would like to recognize and thank the organizations that comprise the ARF’s Collection Group Subscribers who identified and voted on this topic as well as supported and assisted in the research.”
The full report is currently only available to SWANA ARF subscribers. To learn more about the report and to download the executive summary, click here.
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The fire appears to be accidental and not suspicious in nature, according to officials.
A significant fire at a Recology-owned landfill in Novato, California, had firefighters working against an “oppressive heatwave” to control the blaze.
The fire started at the Sonoma Marin Landfill at about 10 p.m. Sept. 6, reports CBS News. At the time of the fire, a heat wave had driven temperatures in the area into triple digits for much of the day.
According to Novato Fire Protection District Battalion Chief Jeff Whittet, the fire appears to be accidental and not suspicious in nature. He told CBS News the Novato Fire District sent crews to battle the flames and were joined by units from Marin County Fire, Central Marin Fire and North Bay Fire.
Firefighters say the blaze was fueled by construction materials such as drywall and lumber; however, a spokesperson with the Gypsum Association, Silver Spring, Maryland, says this is likely not the case.
In an email to Waste Today, the Gypsum Association notes that gypsum drywall is “inherently non-combustible,” which is “precisely why drywall is used in 99 percent of structures today.”
“When a gypsum panel is exposed to high temperatures, it does not ignite. Instead, the surface releases steam as the chemically combined water in the core is released. Heat transmission is obstructed until this slow process, known as calcination, is complete,” the spokesperson says. “During a fire, wood or steel structural members covered with gypsum panels are protected and the fire is contained because the temperature behind the panel is significantly lower than the temperature at which steel loses strength or wood ignites.”
According to the Gypsum Association, this fire-resistant nature can be credited to the chemical composition of gypsum. Gypsum, or calcium sulfate dihydrate, is an inert compound containing 21 percent by weight chemically combined water. Both natural gypsum and synthetic gypsum share this inherent characteristic, which is leveraged to provide buildings, including homes, with passive fire resistance.
Waste Today has reached out to the Novato Fire District for more information on what may have sparked the fire.
Photos shared by the Novato Fire District on Twitter show flames burning amid the piles of debris:
Novato Fire District personnel with assistance from Marin County Fire, Central Marin Fire and North Bay Fire controlled a large debris fire at the Sonoma Marin Landfill. Smoke is visible from Highways 101 and 37. No structures were damaged and no injuries reported. ?????? pic.twitter.com/jAZgUmLEwU
As reported by CBS News, smoke and flames were visible from Highways 101 and 37. No structures were damaged, and no injuries were reported.
The “deep-seated” nature of the fire necessitated a “lot of work to tackle,” according to firefighters. CBS News last reported Sept. 7 that large water tenders were being employed to put the fire out. Bulldozers were also used to “push out” extinguished matter to be cooled and covered.
Editor's Note: This article has been updated to include statements from the Gypsum Association on the characteristics of gypsum drywall.