Date: April 8, 2012
Source: News Room
While Waste Management CEO David Steiner was speaking with the Wall Street Journal about the future of waste, his lieutenant, Carl Rush spoke to Bloomberg News about the future of waste conversion. Rush, who is senior vice president of Waste Management's Organic Growth unit, estimated the value of waste currently being landfilled by the company to be worth more than $40 billion, if reclaimed or harnessed for energy. He said the company landfills about 82 percent of the 112 million tons of waste it collects. "We don't think the future, long term, is going to be continuing to put everything in the landfill," Rush said. "It's going to be recovering more value from this material. The customers will demand it, the struggle for resources will demand it, and quite honestly, economically, it's the thing we should be doing."
Since 2009, Waste Management has bought stakes in eight companies that gasify, ferment or digest waste, turning it into a source of heat, power, fuel and specialty chemicals. For example the company has invested in Bend, OR-based InEnTec which is commercializing plasma arc gasification of wastes into synthesis gas (syngas) that can then be converted into fuel, burned for energy, or turned into chemicals. It also has a sizable investment in Montreal, QC-based Enerkem which is developing gasification plants in Alberta and Mississippi. More recently the company has pushed into organics waste technologies with its investments in Harvest Power and Garick LLC.
Of course, Waste Management already produces energy from waste, by incinerating it to make electricity at 17 waste-to-energy plants under its Wheelabrator Division, or by capturing and burning methane from its 131 landfill gas-to-energy projects. The landfill gas is also being used to fuel some of its collection vehicles. A venture with Linde North America is producing liquefied natural gas at the Altamont Landfill near Livermore, CA. Company ventures with Terrabon and Valero also seek to commercialize liquid transportation fuel from organic waste.
Rush says the Organic Growth Group is organized into four areas: renewable energy, materials technology, which explores ways to convert components of the waste stream into higher value products, recycling technologies to increase diversion, and brand management as a means to drive business. He points out that the 30-50 million tons of organics waste out of 160 million tons collected represents an important sub-market and key opportunity.
With waning landfill space that is becoming more expensive, and with rising energy prices which is also raising the price of commodity materials, conversion technologies are bound to play an increasingly important role in the future. About 7.1 percent of the company's waste was burned to make electricity last year and it recycled 12 million tons of garbage worth $1.58 billion in revenue. The entire stream, if recycled, would generate about $12 billion a year, Rush estimated. "Based on a typical tipping fee," the returns from selling fuel and chemicals made from garbage are "pretty attractive," he said.
See also: "Waste Management's Carl Rush Talks about Waste as a Resource," (www.wasteinfo.com/news/wbj20100427E.htm), April 26, 2010.
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