Weekly News Bulletin: Mar. 20-26, 2006

 

Tipping Fees on the Rise Providing Some Long-Awaited Relief to the Industry

Average waste disposal pricing or tipping fees were up 4.5% over the last year that ended in December 2005. The biggest gainers were landfills whose prices rose 5.5% to $37.34/Ton on a weighted average basis. Taken together, landfills, transfer stations, materials recovery facilities, and waste-to-energy plants collectively average $40.67/Ton.

Rising prices seem to indicate that facility operators, particularly the private sector which controls 75% of disposal (by volume), is getting some long awaited financial relief. Municipalities and commercial customers seem to understand the need for price increases given notably higher fuel, medical and labor costs of late.

Given that these higher costs apply to everyone in the business, there has been less opportunity for smaller companies to take market share by offering lower prices. In fact, the opposite seems to be the case since the larger organizations are better able to negotiate lower operating costs through volume business...Read More »

 

 

NSWMA Issues White Paper on Modern Landfills

The National Solid Wastes Management Association (NSWMA) today announced that its white paper, "Modern Landfills: A Far Cry from the Past," is now available.

"The paper was prepared to explain the history behind the development of modern landfills and provides details on how today's landfills are designed, operated, and regulated to protect human health and the environment" said Bruce Parker, President and CEO, NSWMA. "In the past, older landfills either didn't collect methane gas generated by the decomposition of the garbage or collected the methane and burned without energy recovery. Today's highly engineered landfills can produce "green energy" which conserves fossil fuels and reduces greenhouse gas emissions."...Read More »

 

 

BFI Canada Income Fund Announces March 2006 Cash Distribution

BFI Canada Income Fund (the "Fund") (TSX:BFC.UN) has declared a cash distribution of C$0.1415 per trust unit for the month of March 2006, payable on April 14, 2006 to the unitholders of record as of March 31, 2006.
BFI Canada Income Fund, through its subsidiaries, is one of North America's largest full-service waste management companies, providing non-hazardous solid waste collection and landfill disposal services for municipal, commercial, industrial and residential customers in five provinces and nine U.S. states. Its two brands, IESI and BFI Canada, are leaders in their respective markets and serve over 1 million customers with vertically integrated collection and disposal assets. The Fund's units are listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbol BFC.UN...Read More »

 

 

Avalon Holdings Corporation Announces Fourth Quarter Results

Avalon Holdings Corporation (Amex: AWX) said that 4th Quarter net operating revenues were $8.5 million compared with $8.1 million in the prior year period. Income from continuing operations was $.2 million compared to $.1 million a year ago.
For the full year of 2005, net operating revenues were $34.2 million compared with $30.0 million for the prior year period. The Company recorded income from continuing operations of $.5 million, or $.14 per share for the full year of 2005 compared with a loss from continuing operations of $.8 million, or $.22 per share for the prior year period...Read More »

 

 

Waste Management teams up with first African-American driver to attempt to qualify for the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup in 20 years

NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series TM driver Bill Lester will make history this weekend, piloting the No. 23 Waste Management NASCAR ® entry for Bill Davis Racing in the Golden Corral 500 at the Atlanta Motor Speedway (Fox, 1:30 p.m.). Lester, fulfilling a lifelong dream, will be the first black driver to attempt to qualify for a NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series TM race in 20 years...Read More »

 

 

Santee Cooper, Waste Management, Tri-County Electric Co-op Dedicate Green Power Station at Richland County Landfill

Santee Cooper, Waste Management and Tri-County Electric Cooperative today dedicated the Richland County Generating Station, state-owned utility Santee Cooper's third "Green Power" generating facility. Through a process at the 124-acre landfill, methane gas produced by decomposing waste fuels a 5.5-megawatt gas-turbine generator at the $8.5 million facility. Methane gas is considered to be a renewable energy source because it is created through natural decomposition of organic materials. The electricity produced is called "green power." The plant entered commercial operation Feb. 28...Read More »

 

 

Sanitation Districts and Partners Launch Medication Disposal Outreach Program

The Sanitation Districts of Los Angeles County have recently teamed up with the City of Los Angeles, Orange County Sanitation District, California Pharmacists Association, and California Poison Control System in a joint effort to launch a new public education campaign to address disposal of household medications. The campaign's tagline, "No Drugs Down the Drain" is meant to encourage Southern California residents to dispose of their unused or expired medications in ways more appropriate than flushing them down the toilet. Medications flushed down the toilet find their way into water treatment plants that are hard pressed to remove many of the substances and thus pose a threat to health and the environment...Read More »

 

 

Bidders Queue for Brambles Asset Sale

Brambles is preparing to sell its Cleanaway and Industrial Services businesses. It is estimated that the two businesses have a combined value of $1.3 billion...Read More »

 

 

India Moves from Landfill Gas to Clean Energy

As the third largest methane-emitting country in the world, India is working to develop clean energy sources that can yield substantial economic, environmental and health benefits for its citizens. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry are partnering with stakeholders from India's solid waste industry, finance community, and national government to capture and reuse landfill methane gas under EPA's Methane to Markets Partnership...Read More »

 

 

Veridium Receives Order to Convert Animal Fat into Biodiesel Feedstock

Veridium Corporation (OTC Bulletin Board: VRDM), a publicly traded industrial waste recycling company, today announced its receipt of an order from a Kansas-based livestock processing facility to extract more than 14 million pounds per year of animal fat from the facility's waste streams for conversion into a biodiesel feedstock using Veridium's proprietary animal fat recycling and conversion technologies.

Veridium expects that the order with the Kansas facility will generate an estimated $2.1 million to $2.6 million in annualized revenues when it commences operations later this year...Read More »

 

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