US Approves Advanced Disposal-Veolia Deal with Some Conditions
The Department of Justice (DOJ) approved Star Atlantic Waste Holdings' $1.9 billion purchase of Veolia ES Solid Waste Inc. as long as the companies agree to shed waste collection or disposal assets in northern New Jersey and central Georgia. The companies announced their plans in July to create a combined company under the Advanced Disposal name with annual revenue of about $1.4 billion operating across 20 states. DOJ approved the deal contingent upon the divestitures in order to preserve competition in those markets. Under the proposed settlement, Star Atlantic and Veolia will divest three specified transfer stations in northern New Jersey; a landfill and two transfer stations in central Georgia; and three commercial waste collection routes in the Macon, GA metropolitan area...Read More »
Los Angeles Overhauls $220 Million Annual Waste System
The Los Angeles City Council has approved a hotly contested proposal that creates 11 new and exclusive commercial hauling franchise areas within the city. It is a market said to be worth $220 million per year. The plan, which still could face legal challenges, aims to increase hauling efficiency, boost recycling and reduce trash trucks by allowing a single hauler to service an entire area. However, the city Bureau of Sanitation will continue to collect from single-family residences and small multi-unit buildings. Officials say the goal of the plan, which is backed by environmentalists and organized labor, is to get the city to zero waste by 2025. Opponents, including business interests and many of the city's trash companies, argue that could be reached sooner and more cheaply under the existing more competitive system and that smaller "third- and fourth-generation businesses . . . will not be able to compete with the larger haulers," said Councilwoman Jan Perry, a candidate for mayornext year. The Sanitation Department must still work out the details, including how to setup the system, establish recycling goals and reconcile more than a dozen amendments such as exempting hospitals...Read More »
New GHG Rules Kill Biomass Project in Mass.
The developer of a planned $150 million, 50-megawatt biomass plant in Massachusetts has cancelled the project due to a strict new state rule to curb greenhouse gases (GHGs) from bioenergy plants. Russell Biomass LLC sent a letter to Russell, MA on Oct. 23 to "regretfully inform" them that following an analysis of the Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources' (DOER) renewable energy biomass rules, "we must terminate and abandon the project. . . [which] is not technically and economically viable" because of the regulation's mandate that bioenergy have at least a 50 percent efficiency rate to qualify as renewable energy. "The combined electric and thermal power economics of our -- or any -- biomass plant, even a highly efficient combined heat and power plant, would not be price competitive with onshore wind -- the cheapest renewable energy technology," the developer said in its letter...Read More »
KiOR Begins Producing Oil from Waste
Biofuel company KiOR (Pasadena, TX) has begun producing biocrude at its $200 million plant in Columbus, MS which will ultimately convert 500 tons of biomass per day into 11 million gallons of oil annually. The company has signed agreements with FedEx, Hunt Refining Company, and Catchlight Energy LLC which will buy oil produced at the plant. Catchlight Energy LLC, a 50-50 joint venture between subsidiaries of Chevron Corporation and Weyerhaeuser Company. The biorefinery has received local investments of $190 million and statewide more than $500 million. Once the first plant is complete, KiOR has plans to add four more sites, two in Mississippi and two with undetermined locations.
In late October, another company INEOS New Plant Energy LLC (Vero Beach, FL) began producing power at its $130 million biorefinery in Indian River County, FL that will ultimately produce 8 million gallons per year of ethanol and generate 6 MW of renewable power from local organic and household wastes once it begins full operation, including bioethanol production later this year...Read More »
Covanta Cuts Full-Year Earnings in Wake of Sandy
Covanta Holding Corp. (Morristown, NJ) revised its expected earnings for the year after Hurricane Sandy disrupted operations or caused damage at 12 of its East Coast energy facilities. The company said that two sites in New Jersey suffered flood damage and had to be shut down temporarily, while others were damaged by the wind. All have resumed normal operations except for a facility in Essex, NJ which is expected to restart shortly. The company revised full-year earnings estimates downward to between $0.50 and $0.55 per share from a previous guidance of between $0.55 and $0.60 per share. "Given the unprecedented scale of this storm, we are grateful that all of our employees are safe and that we sustained so little damage," said Chief Executive Anthony Orlando...Read More »
Wood Waste-to-Fuel Company Enviva Secures $120 Million
Biomass supplier Enviva has closed on a $120 million senior secured credit facility to help it complete two new 500,000 ton-per-year waste wood to fuel pellet mills in Virginia and North Carolina. Once complete early next year, the two plants will bring Enviva's total annual production capacity to 1.7 million tons-per-year. Enviva has been supplying wood chips and pellets to customers in the US and Europe since 2007. It operates wood pellet manufacturing facilities throughout the southeastern US, as well as in Belgium. Most of its product from its new mills in Courtland, VA and Northampton County, NC will be exported to European customers via its terminal in Chesapeake, VA acquired in February 2011...Read More »
Stericycle Q3 Earnings up 17%, Revenue Higher on Acquistions
Medical waste management company Stericycle, Inc. (Lake Forest, IL) reported third quarter adjusted earnings of $0.84 per share, up 17 percent from $0.72 per share last year. Reported earnings included special items including acquisitions expenses, restructuring and plant closure costs and a loss on the sale of business totaling $0.09 per share while last year's earnings included acquisition costs of $0.04 per share. That resulted in reported earnings of $65.5 million or $0.75 per share versus $59.2 million or $0.68 per share last year. Revenue rose 41 percent to $480 million helped by recent acquisitions that contributed $31.5 million. The company continues to benefit from its strong pace of acquisitions with a current pipeline of over $100 million in annualized revenues, while also expanding its portfolio of services to existing customers, including Steri-Safe and clinical compliance offerings for its smaller quantity customers and Sharps Management, pharma waste and Integrated Waste Services offerings for its large quantity customers...Read More »
Waste Management Buys Coal Ash Recycler
Waste Management has bought a coal ash recycling company called FlyAsh Direct, based in Cincinnati, Ohio. FlyAsh Direct has developed an environmentally friendly technology to recycle coal combustion residuals (CCRs) into a safe raw material for concrete products, fill material, soil amendments, asphalt and others. It is estimated that in excess of 140 million tons of CCRs are generated in the US every year and that about 40 percent of this material is beneficially reused...Read More »
Liberty Tire Recycling Strikes Deal with Hertz
Liberty Tire Recycling (Pittsburgh, PA) has signed a deal with The Hertz Corporation that involves the collection and recycling of more than 160,000 tires annually. The deal is part of the rental car company's sustainable business initiative which seeks to achieve zero landfill waste. "At Liberty Tire Recycling, we are always looking at ways to develop productive partnerships that lead to the recovery and recycling of more scrap tires across North America," said CEO Jeffrey Kendall, in a statement. Liberty currently handles about 140 million tires annually through a network of 40 processing locations from which they reclaim about 1.5 billion pounds of rubber used to make eco-friendly products...Read More »
Covanta Refinances $335 Million in Debt
Covanta Holding Corp. (Morristown, NJ) is offering $335 million in tax-exempt bonds to refinance existing project debt at its Haverhill, Niagara, and SEMASS waste-to-energy facilities and fund future capital expenditures in Massachusetts. The deal frees up about $280 million of additional cash flow over the next five years that would have gone for debt repayment. "By replacing secured project debt with unsecured corporate level debt, this transaction will enhance our financial flexibility and further simplify our capital structure going forward," said Brad Helgeson, Covanta vice president and treasurer...Read More »
Waste Management Opens Single-Stream Facility in Winston-Salem
Waste Management, Inc. (Houston, TX) has opened a new "state-of-the-art" single-stream recycling facility in Winston-Salem, NC, coinciding with America Recycles Day. The 85,000-square-foot facility employs the latest advanced technology for separating materials and increasing capacity while simplifying the lives of customers who can put everything into a single container. That according to Richard Huckabee, Waste Management's director of recycling for the South Atlantic area, can result in an average recovery of up to 30 percent more recyclable materials. Waste Management now operates 36 single-stream recycling facilities in North America. In 2011, the company extracted almost 12.9 million tons of recyclables from the waste stream - 61 percent more than its baseline in 2007. The company's goal is to manage more than 20 million tons a year of recyclable materials by 2020...Read More »
Avalon Reports Q3 Earnings and Revenue Down
Avalon Holdings Corp. (Warren, OH) said third quarter earnings declined to $.1 million, or $.02 per share from $.3 million, or $.08 per share a year ago. Revenue also declined to $13.2 million from $15.8 million in the third quarter of 2011. Avalon provides waste management services in select northeast and Midwest markets, owns a golf club and operates golf courses...Read More »
Sign up to receive our free Weekly News Bulletin