Waste Away

Being “green” can mean different things to different people, but I think most would agree that conserving resources is an important component. Recycling post-consumer and post-industrial materials is a critical part of conserving resources. It makes no sense that so much value—both economic and environmental—is lost with traditional facility waste management and landfill disposal. The collection and reprocessing of what many consider “waste” into new materials and products provides both environmental and economic benefits. The environmental benefits are significant: reduced landfill disposal of waste materials; reduced environmental impact of raw materials acquisition; and reduced energy consumption for the production of new materials and products. These environmental benefits translate directly into economic benefits for both the generators of the waste products and the manufacturers of the recycled materials into new products.

Conserving resources is the ultimate goal of FRG Waste Resources, Inc., which provides waste management equipment solutions and waste diversion programs to commercial and industrial customers. These services directly result in both reduced costs and the conservation of valuable resources. FRG also continually investigates, evaluates and incorporates, when appropriate, new equipment technologies and waste diversion methodologies.

As landfill availability decreases and the problems associated with landfill disposal of solid waste increase (groundwater contamination, greenhouse gas emissions, odor and vermin problems, to name a few), there’s a growing movement to achieve zero-waste generation for communities in California and elsewhere. This goal provides a host of challenges, the greatest of which is the development of technologies and systems to process all generated municipal solid waste (MSW) into new materials or products.

The marketplace has started to respond with technologies that let companies recycle specific waste streams in a sustainable manner. An increasing number of manufacturers are now either developing new or refining existing technologies to create new types of equipment to better manage MSW and process an increasing variety of recyclable materials. There are many examples of this development. The creation of densifiers for plastic-foam wastes, such as polystyrene, polyethylene and polypropylene, has let companies process these wastes onsite and receive income for the processed plastic foams. The landfill disposal of plastic foams, which are typically 92 to 95 percent air and don’t readily biodegrade, represents an unnecessary and unwarranted economic and environmental approach to waste management. As most plastics are derived from oil, there’s the added problem of wasting an increasingly expensive and limited resource.

Food waste represents another waste management challenge. Landfill disposal of food waste results in the generation of methane (a very potent greenhouse gas) upon degradation of the waste. Yet food waste, when properly processed, yields a valuable product that can be used as a soil amendment and, in some cases, livestock feed. Although some waste-hauling companies have started to offer food waste composting programs, these programs aren’t available to all businesses, and they have real costs. Also, the use of large hauling vehicles to collect and transport food waste to remote composting facilities doesn’t address the problem of an expanded carbon footprint, to which waste hauling often contributes. Today, there’s equipment available that lets facilities such as restaurants, food service suppliers, educational institutions and other food waste generators process their food waste onsite (in less than 24 hours) at a lower cost than offsite disposal.

Another example of innovative waste management equipment is the advent of small solar-powered compactors that can be used in shopping centers, municipal shopping districts, outdoor facilities, and a variety of campuses and parks. These compactors provide environmental and economic benefits by significantly reducing the cost of transportation and labor required to service the standard loose-waste receptacles found throughout these locations. FRG provides plastic-foam densifiers, food waste processing systems and solar compactors, in addition to other waste management equipment, throughout Northern California.

Commercial and industrial MSW often presents significant challenges with respect to segregating, collecting and recycling a wide variety of recyclable materials. Residential MSW is fairly consistent with respect to both its content and its rate of generation, and these parameters are well-defined and reasonably well addressed by the waste hauling companies. However, commercial and industrial MSW is often quite variable with respect to both its content and its rate of generation. FRG has paid particular attention to the recyclable waste materials generated by commercial and industrial entities, as well as the market outlets for these materials. The company also studied commodities markets to determine how it could bring value to customers by segregating and selling different recyclable materials.

We live in a time when conservation of resources and other ways of respecting our environment are required for the sake of our children and the generations to come. This is a responsibility all of us must embrace and honor. I’m extremely fortunate to have the opportunity to address this responsibility every day, and I’ve come to appreciate the intrinsic value of what we so often refer to as “waste.”