Date: June 18, 2012
Source: Covanta Energy Corporation
Covanta Energy Corp. (Morristown, NJ) has launched a new metal recycling system at its waste-to-energy plant in Fairfax, VA that will likely serve as a template for its other plants. Driving this effort are record high metals prices which have quadrupled in the last decade. Recovering large metal items before the burn process had always been necessary and recovering it from the spent ash had been a nifty side business until more recently when it graduated into a full blown business itself. Covanta generated metal revenues of around $77 million in the year ended March 31, up from $59 million in the prior year. To further enhance its profit from metals recovery, Covanta formed a strategic alliance in March with industrial recycling and product recovery company Steinert US Inc to deploy more sophisticated systems at its plants. The company said that in 2011 its 41 waste-to-energy plants in North America recycled over 400,000 tons of ferrous and over 15,000 tons of non-ferrous metal, enough steel to build five Golden Gate Bridges and produce over one billion aluminum beverage cans.
PRESS RELEASE
June 18, 2012
Covanta Energy Commences Operation of a First-of-its-kind Metal Recycling System for Energy-from-Waste Facilities in North America
New system at the Covanta Fairfax Energy-from-Waste Facility to enhance metals recycling
Covanta Energy Corporation (NYSE: CVA), a world leader in sustainable waste management and renewable energy, announced today the inaugural operation of a new metal recycling system at its Energy-from-Waste (EfW) Facility in Fairfax County, VA. This first-of-its-kind system in North America is specially designed to recover very small particles of non-ferrous metal and its operational commencement represents a key milestone for Covanta's organic growth initiative.
"Improving efficiency and sustainability are key aspects of our culture and as such, we are continuously looking for new ways to recover value from waste and divert materials from landfills," said Seth Myones, Covanta's chief operating officer. "I'm proud of the way our team recognized the opportunity to recycle additional non-ferrous metal and quickly got this new system up and running."
In March, Covanta announced a strategic alliance with Steinert US, Inc. for non-ferrous metal recovery systems. The partnership is supporting the implementation of new non-ferrous systems at many Covanta facilities that currently do not have them and enhances systems that are already in place, as in the case of Covanta Fairfax.
"We are proud to have achieved one of the highest recycling rates in the state at 47 percent and work hard to continually improve the recovery of recyclable materials," said Joyce Doughty, director of Fairfax County's Division of Solid Waste Disposal and Resource Recovery. "The new recycling system at the Energy-from-Waste facility complements our recycling initiatives very nicely and is a great example of how energy recovery and robust recycling programs can go hand in hand."
In 2011, Covanta's 41 EfW facilities in North America recycled over 400,000 tons of ferrous and over 15,000 tons of non-ferrous metal - the equivalent amount of steel that would be used to build five Golden Gate Bridges and in the production of over one billion aluminum beverage cans.
The recovery of non-ferrous metal at Covanta's EfW facilities for recycling that would have otherwise been lost in landfills avoids a tremendous amount of greenhouse gases. The production of new aluminum, copper, and other metals from raw metal materials is a carbon intensive process that negatively impacts the environment. The new small non-ferrous recovery system at Covanta Fairfax will annually prevent the creation of 15,000 tons of greenhouse gases, equivalent to planting over 340,000 tree seedlings.
Recovering energy from waste after efforts to reduce, reuse and recycle have been employed is a critical component of managing our residual waste. For every ton of municipal solid waste processed at Energy-from-Waste facilities, greenhouse gas emissions are reduced by the equivalent of approximately one ton less of carbon dioxide emissions. This is possible due to the avoidance of methane from landfills, the offset of greenhouse gases from fossil fuel electrical production and the recovery of metals for recycling.
About Covanta
Covanta Energy Corporation is an internationally recognized owner and operator of large-scale Energy-from-Waste and renewable energy projects and a recipient of the Energy Innovator Award from the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy. Covanta's 45 Energy-from-Waste facilities provide communities with an environmentally sound solution to their solid waste disposal needs by using that municipal solid waste to generate clean, renewable energy. Annually, Covanta's modern Energy-from-Waste facilities safely and securely convert approximately 20 million tons of waste into 9 million megawatt hours of clean, renewable electricity and create more than 9 billion pounds of steam sold to a variety of industries. For more information, visit www.covantaenergy.com.
For more information, contact:
James F. Regan
Manager, Corporate Communications & Media Relations
Covanta Energy Corporation
445 South Street Morristown, NJ 07960
Tel: 862-345-5216
Cell: 732-991-6088
jregan@covantaenergy.com
Twitter: @covantaenergy
www.covantaenergy.com.
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