Posted Jul 12, 2009, 8:46 PM
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amateur urbanite
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Join Date: May 2009
Location: Mobile
Posts: 269
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Group launches industrial recycling effort in Mobile
http://www.al.com/business/press-register/index.ssf?/base/business/1247390232317080.xml&coll=3
Quote:
Synergy project turns one company's useless byproduct into another's resource
Sunday, July 12, 2009 By KAIJA WILKINSONBusiness Reporter
In Theodore, Evonik Degussa sends chemical byproducts to companies that use it in fuel and fertilizer, reducing the plant's waste stream and saving $750,000 annually.
Evonik is one of several local plants that have formed partnerships that involve sharing byproducts that would have been wasted to shrink their environmental footprints. Now, local industry group Partners for Environmental Progress, commonly known as PEP, hopes to expand local efforts.
Mobile-based PEP recently launched By-Product Synergy Gulf Coast, hosting a meeting in Mobile where representatives from about a dozen companies learned about and discussed the process. The Mobile initiative is one of six under way nationwide, according to project consultant Dennis Milligan, chief of operations for the U.S. Business Council for Sustainable Development.
Byproduct synergy essentially means turning one company's useless byproducts into another's resource. The program has enjoyed success in larger metro areas, including Chicago, where 90 companies and seven city departments have realized $4.5 million in savings and new revenue in the past several years as a result of its ongoing Waste to Profit network, according to the council. In Salt Lake City, a cement plant uses surplus diapers and tire scraps to generate energy, re ducing its coal consumption by
30 percent.
"It's very progressive for Mobile to be doing this — it speaks very highly of the local industrial community," Milligan said.
Partnerships save dollars
Locally, two of Evonik Degussa's partnerships — in which chemical byproducts are sold to both local and national companies that use it as an octane fuel booster and fertilizer additive, respectively — resulted in annual savings of $750,000 and waste reduction of 6.7 million pounds, according to Bill Klutz, the facility's environmental manager.
Although not a formal part of the By-Product Synergy effort, the programs are exactly the kind PEP wants to facilitate, said Jennifer Denson, executive director. Companies like Evonik can share the challenges and rewards with those that are newer to the effort, she said.
Recycling is "a huge positive for the environment," Klutz said. "(It) results in a decrease of emissions, a reduction in the use of energy such as imported oil, and a greater drive toward sustainability in the future."
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