Priority-1 Waste is a roll-off collection company serving industrial and C&D waste customers in the Charleston, South Carolina, market.
Columbia, South Carolina-based Capital Waste Services LLC (CWS), a portfolio company of New York City-based Kinderhook Industries LLC, announced the acquisition of Priority-1 Waste LLC. Priority-1 Waste LLC is a roll-off collection company serving industrial and construction and demolition (C&D) waste customers in the Charleston, South Carolina, market. Priority-1 Waste represents Capital Waste’s second add-on acquisition and Kinderhook’s 48th environmental services transaction since inception.
“Priority-1 Waste allows us to expand our service offering in the Charleston market to include roll-off services for industrial and C&D waste customers. With the recent launch of our Charleston operations, we look forward to growing Priority-1 Waste into permanent roll-off work while also branching off into front-end load waste and recycling collection,” Matt Parker, CEO of CWS, says.
“We are excited to further expand the Capital Waste platform through acquisition. The team has done an exceptional job maintaining its industry-leading service while broadening its geographical reach and operational capabilities. We expect to continue this growth through both our expansive sales force as well as additional M&A,” Rob Michalik, managing director of Kinderhook, says.
"I am happy to partner with Capital Waste, who has the capabilities and resources to continue our great service for our growing customer base. I am excited to work with Matt Parker and his team post-closing as they continue to excel as leaders in the South Carolina market,” Dana Arthur, founder of Priority-1 Waste, says.
Kirkland & Ellis LLP, Chicago, served as legal counsel to Kinderhook. Financing for the transaction was provided by Dallas-based Comerica Bank.
Organization says a certified recycling facility’s average can be used on LEED scorecards.
The Washington-based United States Green Building Council (USGBC), which oversees the (LEED) certification system, has included an accommodation to help keep C&D materials recycling credits on track during COVID-19 restrictions.
Richard Ludt, who is a board member of both the Illinois-based Construction and Demolition Recycling Association (CDRA) and the Los Angeles Chapter of USGBC, says he was part of a team from both organizations that worked to “make sure that LEED projects still get their diversion points, recovery facilities do not lose their business, and we continue to ensure the best diversion possible despite the pandemic.”
A number of people deserve credit for working together to create the temporary accommodation to keep the LEED materials recycling credit viable, says Ludt. He lists Brock Hill of Premier Recycle in San Jose, California; Ben Stapleton, the executive director of the USGBC Los Angeles Chapter; Wes Sullens a LEED director with USGBC; and William Turley, executive director of the CDRA.
Ludt, director of environmental affairs at South Gate, California-based Interior Removal Specialist Inc., is himself a LEED accredited professional (AP), and his company’s facility in South Gate was certified in 2015 to become eligible to offer the LEED points pertaining to materials recycling. Ludt says the South Gate facility “has been able to maintain our diversion [practices] during the pandemic; we are one of the lucky ones.”
In a series of LEED- and COVID-19-related questions and answers posted to the USGBC website in late March and updated on July 7, one question addresses the potential dilemma of recycling facilities being closed, or presumably not sorting in the same manner or at the same rate of speed they would ordinarily.
The answer provided by USGBC encourages project managers “to continue to divert materials and recycle to the greatest extent possible. Those materials that are able to be recycled and diverted shall be documented in the normal way as outlined in the Materials and Resources Construction and Demolition Waste Management credit.”
Continues USGBC, “However, we realize that circumstances may make recycling challenging for reasons outside a project team’s control during the global pandemic. Projects experiencing difficulty during this time shall continue to send materials to recycling facilities and either: (a) temporarily exclude the affected loads from credit calculations (still track the materials, even though they will not count toward overall project generation and diversion rates); or (b) use the waste processing facility’s average diversion rate reported prior to the pandemic. Diversion rates must be the facility average for at least the six months prior to the pandemic.”
Most states and federal agencies have recognized recycling facilities as essential, but access to facilities has not been uniform from state to state.
Equipment maker says it is focusing on the recycling business while sharpening its product portfolio.
The Velbert, Germany-based Doppstadt Group and its managing director Ferdinand Doppstadt say the company will be staying on course with a business strategy “focusing even more on recycling technology, aligning its product range to this field alone.”
In late 2019, the company announced the formation of Langenberger Innovation Group (LIG), which will manage brands and products pertinent to the wider minerals, raw materials and biofuels sectors, including forestry chippers.
This differentiated growth strategy follows the aim of ensuring best-in-class products and services for each respective field, according to Doppstadt Umwelttechnik GmbH CEO Gerd Schreier. “The Doppstadt name has an excellent reputation in recycling,” says Schreier. “We not only launched great new machines at the beginning of 2020, we have already embarked on further plans to live up to our reputation.”
The company announced the availability of its Inventhor Type 6 and Methor shredders, plus separation technology like the SWS, in May.
Doppstadt says it also has plans to launch new screening machines soon while also pushing development on a three-fraction screening machine and new versions of its SM 620 and 720 Flex machines. Doppstadt also says it is beginning development on a fast shredder to replace the AK series in the long term “while serving additional application areas.”
The equipment maker says it also will be increasing its range of electric-powered machinery. “This additional focus will allow us to respond even more quickly and accurately to the demands of recyclers for innovative technology,” states Schreier.
Many of the new mobile units also are available as stationary units. Doppstadt indicates increasingly stringent legislation and a trend toward centralization of materials to be processed have increased demand for stationary machinery.
“We have an innovative project development team with the corresponding project leadership capabilities, so we’re well prepared for the upcoming challenges,” comments Doppstadt Systemtechnik GmbH CEO Henning Strunz. “We provide our customers with optimum solutions from basic engineering to final turnkey units,” he adds.
The Doppstadt Group includes Doppstadt Umwelttechnik GmbH and Doppstadt Systemtechnik GmbH with locations in Velbert and Wülfrath, Germany, and Doppstadt Calbe GmbH based in the town of Calbe, Germany.
The newly formed LIG is responsible for machinery in the biofuels, minerals and raw materials sectors, while water-based separation engineering products have been transferred to WIMA, a subsidiary of LIG.
Soap Cycling in Hong Kong and New York-based The Paint Foundation collect and repurpose noncommodity materials.
Thriving secondary commodity markets for metals, paper and board, concrete, some plastics and many end-of-life items boost the world’s landfill diversion rate. Beyond that, nonprofit organizations have been stepping in to find ways to repurpose non-commodity discarded items like soap and paint.
Hong Kong-based Soap Cycling is a nonprofit organization established in 2012 to collect, sanitize and redistribute the considerable volumes of barely used soap generated in hotels there.
The organization benefits from a continual procession of lodgers in Hong Kong who generate an ongoing flow of barely used bars and bottles of soap—products that can play a valuable hygiene role in local households or in parts of the world where soap is difficult to afford.
The organization’s June 2020 Half-Year Report notes its flow of discarded soap has been severely affected by the onset of COVID-19 and subsequent travel restrictions. “As Hong Kong went into lockdown, one of the hardest-hit sectors was the hospitality industry,” states the report.
The increased importance of hygiene brought about by the pandemic, however, prompted greater attention to hand washing, creating renewed distribution opportunities for the inventory of soap products already in Soap Cycling’s Hong Kong warehouse when the pandemic struck. “Starting on Jan. 28, teams of our employees, board members and stakeholders started distributing free hygiene kits, aiming to reach all 18 districts of Hong Kong and raise awareness with the general public about the importance of handwashing with soap,” the organization says in its report.
Among the recipients were Hong Kong street cleaning employees, more than 3,300 of whom received soap, sanitizer and face masks supplied by Soap Cycling. Hygiene products in 2020 also have gone to families or schools in the Philippines, Myanmar and rural China, and to migrant workers in Singapore. Soap Cycling also is seeking donations to see it through the lodging downturn.
The Paint Foundation, based in New York, says its mission is “to provide environmentally sustainable reuse options to generators for their nonsalable, nonuseable waste [and] to recycle it back in a circular economy, creating products of use and value for developing communities.”
The organization is backed by the Mumbai-based Matawala Group Of Industries and Matawala Paints, which uses its paint making facilities and technical know-how to make “production batches of 53 different types of recycled-content coatings.”
The recycled-content product range includes interior and exterior latex paints and primers, plastic emulsions, bitumen emulsions, stucco putties, as well as synthetic enamels and industrial coatings.
Off-spec paint and expired inventory make up part of what The Paint Foundation collects and reprocesses, along with customer returns, incomplete batches and other materials that would otherwise be discarded.
In addition to operating in the United States and India, The Paint Foundation or its affiliates also have a presence in Australia, Canada, Mexico, Poland, the United Arab Emirates and the United Kingdom.
A 13-page PDF brochure created by the foundation says it is seeking interns and volunteers to help expand its mission. “Everybody with access to background knowledge, contacts, ability and a desire to serve the community are welcome,” states the foundation.
ISRI’s comments to the EPA focus on the economic and environmental benefits of recycling driven by the program.
In early April, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) said it was seeking comments on its current list of items that are or can be made from recovered materials and its recommendations to federal agencies on purchasing these items. The 90-day comment period closed earlier this month.
The federal government’s buy-recycled program uses federal purchasing power to stimulate demand for products made with recovered materials. EPA designates recycled-content items and publishes recommendations to assist procuring agencies using federal funds in meeting their obligations under this program. The last update to the product designations and procurement recommendations occurred in 2007, according to the agency.
EPA was asking for input regarding whether the right products are on the list; if any should be deleted, added or modified; and whether the current recycled-content and procurement specifications are appropriate.
The Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries (ISRI), Washington, submitted comments to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) July 6 in support of updating the EPA’s Comprehensive Procurement Guidelines (CPG). The comments were signed by Adina Renee Adler, ISRI vice president of advocacy.
In its comments, ISRI encourages enhancing the CPG to reflect current market availability of additional goods made from recycled content and the amount of recycled content that can be incorporated into these products. ISRI also suggests the increased purchases of these products by government procurement officials for purposes of stimulating recycling and doing more to divert end-of-life materials from landfills through the use of an enhanced CPG.
ISRI writes that it intends its comments to “suggest separate EPA rule-making that clearly defines recycling and related terms; support the enhancement of the CPG to reflect current market availability of additional goods made from recycled content and the amount of recycled content that can be incorporated into these products; and promote increased purchases of these products by government procurement officials for purposes of stimulating recycling and doing more to divert end of life materials from landfills through the use of an enhanced CPG.”
ISRI describes the CPG as “a vitally important resource for promoting sustainability and the resilience of the U.S. manufacturing supply chain, of which recycling is an essential first step. The guidance set out in the CPG for procurement officials in federal, state and local governments provide a critical market for recycled materials; the purchasing of products made with recycled content spurs more recycling activity in the United States.
The association writes that it is “imperative that EPA pursue a separate rule-making that improves the definitions for ‘recycling’, ‘recyclable’ and ‘recycled material.’ For purposes of these comments—and to consider for rule-making—ISRI defines these terms in the following way:
“Recycling is the series of activities during which obsolete, previously used, off-specification, surplus or incidentally produced materials are processed into specification-grade commodities and consumed as raw-material feedstock, in lieu of virgin materials, in the manufacture of new products. The series of activities that make up recycling may include collection, processing and/or brokering and shall result in subsequent consumption by a materials manufacturer.
“A ‘recyclable’ material is an obsolete, previously used, off-specification, surplus or incidentally produced material for processing into a specification-grade commodity for which a market exists,” the comments continue.
ISRI defines recycled material as “material that was initially obsolete, previously used, off-specification, surplus or incidentally produced and that has been processed into a specification-grade commodity for use in materials manufacturing.”
The association concludes by writing, “We also look forward to engaging in a rule-making process with EPA in which the comments provided herein—which includes proposed additional products that are available in the marketplace and made from recycled content as well as changes to recycled content levels in existing products—could be incorporated to enhance the CPG. Doing so will stimulate additional recycling in the United States, which will lead to greater environmental and economic benefits for the United States. It is vital to the overall success of the U.S. recycling industry that government procurement help to drive demand for recycled materials, which will, in turn, drive more opportunity for growth in recycling.”
ISRI recommends that a number of new building and construction products be added to the CPG:
Among the other new products ISRI suggests adding to the CPG are totes and crates made with 50 percent recycled high-density polyethylene; grocery bags made with 20 percent recycled low-density polyethylene; and beverage containers made with 25 to 100 percent recycled plastic, 50 to 100 percent recycled metal and 20 percent recycled glass.