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Yahoo
06-08-2025
- General
- Yahoo
On-site sortation and valet services aim to fix multifamily waste contamination
This story was originally published on Waste Dive. To receive daily news and insights, subscribe to our free daily Waste Dive newsletter. San Francisco is often touted as a poster child for waste reduction. In 2009 it became the first U.S. city to adopt mandatory recycling and composting. But when it comes to compliance, this bright green city has a dark side: apartment buildings. 'Out of all the sectors, multifamily struggles the most with contamination,' said Freddy Coronado, residential zero waste specialist for the San Francisco Environment Department. Multifamily properties account for many of the city's large refuse generators — buildings that produce at least 40 cubic yards or more of uncompacted refuse per week. And upwards of 75% of them fail waste-stream audits that the city performs, according to Coronado. The audits are required as part of the city's Refuse Separation Ordinance, which it enacted in 2019. The RSO covers roughly 450 buildings, including 150 multifamily dwellings, which generate 20% of San Francisco's waste stream. Properties that fail an audit must hire a service provider to perform onsite sortation for at least two years. The city offers training to these providers, called zero waste facilitators, to ensure they sort properly. These organizations take that role very seriously by ripping open every trash bag to pull out recyclable and organic waste. That's because the city has strict contamination thresholds: up to 25% in the waste stream, 10% for recycling and 5% for organics. While many municipalities don't have these types of rules, there's still a growing demand for onsite sortation and other high-touch waste handling services at multifamily properties across the country. These companies help improve recycling and organics diversion, address persistent illegal dumping and even collect waste from residents' doorsteps in a service known as trash valet. Trash valet is the second most-requested amenity in the multifamily sector right now (behind pet infrastructure, like play areas and waste stations), said Kevin Schwartz, senior director of governmental affairs for Valet Living. Schwartz said the company collects trash, recycling (and in some markets, organics) from more than six million residents, usually five nights per week. The company is increasingly providing onsite sortation, sometimes separately from doorstep collection, in California, Oregon and Washington, as well as cities with organics diversion requirements like Austin, Texas, and Gainesville, Florida. Providers are looking to offer more of these types of services to multifamily clients, as indicated by Ally Waste's recent acquisition of California-based WasteXperts, which has provided multifamily recycling and diversion services for decades. 'A few years ago, we were just a pure play valet trash company,' said Ally Waste COO Harrison Crum. 'That's a very niche service only for multifamily. And what we realized is that properties have a lot more trash issues than just getting trash from doorstep to dumpster.' The business model In 2012, Lainika Johnson joined Republic Services as a sales representative in Sacramento, California. She knew nothing about the waste industry, but that quickly changed. 'I asked if I could move my desk to the window so I could watch the transfer station floor,' she said. 'That was fascinating to me … but to other people, they were probably like, 'okay, you're a little crazy about trash.'' Johnson's interests eventually moved upstream as she fielded more and more questions from commercial customers about California's recycling and organics regulations, and concerns about how to handle illegal dumping on their properties. She took a sales role with Valet Living, and eventually decided to branch out on her own, founding TrashLogic in 2016. Today, TrashLogic provides waste handling and sortation services to commercial and multifamily properties. Its first step, Johnson explained, is generally to look over a client's recent hauler charges and observe residents' behaviors to see what they toss, where and how often. 'It's about redesigning the whole system of waste, not just coming in and saying, 'oh, we can clean up your [waste] enclosures,'' she said. Instead, TrashLogic determines whether the property has too many bins or dumpsters, or if they're poorly placed. Some might be overly full and others not maximized. By changing how the waste and recycling collection areas are designed, Johnson said, TrashLogic can often lower properties' hauling costs and reduce overage fees and contamination penalties that some haulers charge. 'We charge for our service and our service costs. Usually the [client's] savings covers most of our cost,' she said. Miyon Mael, chief growth officer at WasteXperts, noted that service adjustments can be very effective in areas with high hauler fees, like Los Angeles. 'Even though you may have overage charges or overflowing containers, it doesn't necessarily mean that those materials are being placed in the right containers. So with boots on the ground we can actually divert that material, place them in the right containers and we could definitely drive down some trash costs,' said Mael. Trash valet services are often billed directly to tenants. A quick survey of rates from various companies in the San Francisco area show that fees range from $20 to $40 per month, per unit. Outside of valet services, Mael said that some properties are able to bill back costs of waste collection to tenants, in municipalities that consider it a utility. Large apartment buildings in urban areas often collect waste centrally, generally using trash chutes. Newer construction or renovated properties sometimes have up to three chutes for different materials — or a retrofitted chute that allows residents to direct waste to different bins using integrated diverters. But the diverters can be difficult for residents to use and are prone to clogging, said Coronado. Mael said WasteXperts provides green compostable bags for food waste and instructs residents to send them down trash chutes. Even if the waste streams are commingled, she said, the bags are easy to divert. 'Because it is a translucent bag, we can easily identify if there's contamination [mixed in with the organics],' she said. Coronado noted that many large buildings in San Francisco have had to remove trash compactors in order to reduce contamination by making it easier for sorters to access refuse. And new apartment buildings in the city are now required to install three separate trash chutes. Staying on top of bulk items in less dense complexes with large parking lots is key, Johnson said. Waste can add up once a location becomes known as a dumping site and sometimes people who don't live at the apartment complex dump there, too. 'We see a lot of TVs, we see a lot of furniture and we see a lot of car parts,' explained Aaron Lee, a waste flow technician supervisor at TrashLogic. Changing behavior Improving multifamily recycling is an ongoing challenge, and one that experts say requires ongoing education and engagement. Mael said part of the problem is a lack of accountability in large communities, since it can be very difficult to tie high rates of contamination to particular residents. 'Tenants move in and move [out], and there are language barriers, cultural barriers,' to proper sorting and reducing contamination, said Coronado. San Francisco is trying different approaches to improve compliance, from door-to-door outreach, to holding educational meetings for residents with refreshments. But, ultimately, the steep penalties and requirements to hire zero waste facilitators is what really moves the needle for property managers. In San Francisco multifamily buildings face two different financial incentives to remain in compliance with the city's diversion requirements and to avoid contamination. If a property fails a waste stream audit, it must create and share a compliance plan with the city, which includes hiring a zero waste facilitator. Failing to do so within four months triggers an administrative penalty of $500 per day for up to 60 days, and the fees increase from there. The buildings are also subject to contamination fees based on inspections from the city's franchise hauler, Recology. Those fees can be up to 50% of the property's bill, which can easily add hundreds or thousands of dollars, each month. Coronado said the potential for these steep fines has resulted in a high compliance rate among properties that fail audits, and that the city has not yet charged administrative or contamination fees to multifamily properties. While artificial intelligence and automation are gaining traction in many parts of the recycling system, the companies that provide manual sortation don't see demand for their services decreasing any time soon. Miyon Mael, Aaron Lee and Kevin Schwartz all agreed that it won't be a concern until robots are able to climb stairs, drive trucks, jump into dumpsters and deftly sort all manner of trash. Recommended Reading EPR, multifamily improvements could boost stagnant 21% residential recycling rate, TRP says
Yahoo
26-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
What plastic, paper and metal commodity experts are watching with tariffs
This story was originally published on Waste Dive. To receive daily news and insights, subscribe to our free daily Waste Dive newsletter. Editor's note: This story is part of a series highlighting takeaways from a July 23 virtual event hosted by Packaging Dive, Supply Chain Dive, Manufacturing Dive and Trucking Dive. Register here to watch the replay on demand. It's normal for commodity markets to ebb and flow due to a variety of domestic and global factors, but recent tariff impacts and changes in the U.S. economy in 2025 have thrown a new wrench in markets for virgin and recycled aluminum, plastic and fiber commodities. Experts in plastics, paper and metals offered an overview of these factors during the 'Supply Chain Outlook: Trends and Risks to Watch in 2025' event on Wednesday. The Trump administration's tariffs have resulted in market uncertainty, and that's playing out in different ways depending on the commodity, speakers said. These were some key takeaways from the event: Varied trade exposure, but also opportunities for US plastic manufacturing In the plastics industry, tariff exposure varies by sector. For example, plastic resins face less uncertainty compared with the machinery and molds sectors, said Perc Pineda, chief economist at the Plastics Industry Association. 'By and large, the plastics industry's exposure to trade is only about 20%,' he said, noting that there's currently 'a lot' of U.S. plastics production capacity and low utilization. 'If there is a need for import substitution because tariff rates are so high it's cost prohibitive, I am confident that domestic manufacturing could actually step in,' he said. The United States is a net importer of recycled plastics materials, he said. At the same time, domestic virgin resin production has increased by 5% year over year, which he sees as a sign that such production could help backfill demand if recycled commodities become harder to source due to tariffs. In June, virgin resin prices rose by 0.3%, which he sees as a sign that higher tariffs haven't automatically translated to higher inflation. However, the U.S. imports about 70% of the machinery it needs for plastic production, plus around half of needed molds, leading the industry to call for certain tariff exemptions in these sectors, he said. The industry is monitoring the situation, but likely won't see the true effects of such tariffs for several months. 'I know things are evolving, but I am hopeful, because I don't think the economy can continue with a scenario like this, when there's so much uncertainty. It has long-term effects, and the knock-on effects on the economy are going to be broad and wide.' Section 232 tariffs continue to impact steel and aluminum can manufacturing Section 232 aluminum and steel tariffs, which have been in place since 2018, went from 25% to 50% earlier this year. That has increased costs for aluminum and steel cans used for food, beverages and other items. The Can Manufacturers Institute and other groups are calling for specific tariff exemptions on aluminum imported from Canada, as well as on tin plate typically used to make steel cans, said CMI President Scott Breen. The industry prides itself on its recycled content use, Breen said. The average aluminum beverage can is made of about 71% recycled content, 'but that does mean that 29% is virgin or new aluminum, and most of that virgin aluminum is imported,' mainly from Canada, he said. For steel cans, nearly 80% of tin plate is imported, and 'we would love to purchase more domestic tin plate, but it's just not produced at the levels we need,' he said. Since 2018, nine of the 12 tin plate lines available in the U.S. have shut down, he said. Breen said continued tariffs will likely lead to increased food prices, citing a study from the Consumer Brands Association estimating a 9% to to 15% increase in the cost of canned goods. Broader economic trends, not tariffs, driving US fiber trade for now Meanwhile, broader changes in the global economy are making more of an impact on the fiber industry than tariffs specifically are, said Terry Webber, vice president of industry affairs for the American Forest & Paper Association. Paper is 'a commodity that tracks pretty closely to general economic performances. There's more economic activity, there's more paper and paper-based packaging consumed,' he said. The U.S. exports about 6 million tons of packaging papers globally. However, about 70% of the nation's external fiber trade is with Canada and Mexico, 'so as long as that trading relationship continues, that's going to cover the lion's share of the business we do,' he said. U.S. exports of recovered fiber to global markets have been declining in recent years, and the U.S. has focused on domestic investments meant to expand manufacturing that uses recycled fiber, namely OCC and mixed paper, he said. He estimated that AF&PA companies have announced about $7 billion in recent investments, 'so we're seeing a long-term positive trend in U.S. mill consumption that's helping to offset some of those changes that we're seeing in global trade flows.' At the same time, the U.S. has seen multiple notable mill closures in the first half of 2025. Webber attributed that activity to the industry adjusting its output to market demands. 'As capacity is coming offline, we're making investments in new capacity' while making the overall supply chains more efficient, he said. Webber noted AF&PA is tracking possible tariff impacts on equipment, which is typically imported from regions like Europe. 'It would be unfortunate if the spending and investment that our companies are conducting becomes subject to tariffs," he said. Recommended Reading ISRI says its rebrand to ReMA reflects the recycling industry's modern values Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Yahoo
11-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
BTS Bioenergy charts new path, scraps California digester project
This story was originally published on Waste Dive. To receive daily news and insights, subscribe to our free daily Waste Dive newsletter. Bioenergy Devco, now known as BTS Bioenergy, made few announcements in the months leading up to its May 27 rebrand. CEO Nick Thomas, who has spent much of the past year retooling the company's strategy, said he hopes that will change moving forward. "When you lose your way, and you're not delivering, things do go quiet," Thomas, who joined the company in May 2024, said in an interview. "We've managed to have some success here, but everything we're doing right now is orienting towards execution." BTS Bioenergy's European division has a long history. Founded in 1996, it has built more than 250 plants and secured dozens of patents. The company came to North America in 2019 and leveraged its expertise to build the Maryland Bioenergy Center, which opened in 2021. But years later, that facility remains BTS' only completed American digester project. Anaerobic digestion has grown more slowly than developers hoped in the U.S. over the last several years, particularly among facilities that process food waste. Other digestion companies have set bold expansion goals in recent years and struggled to meet them, prompting multiple leadership changes. Bioenergy Devco itself received a more than $100 million commitment from Irradiant Partners in 2021 to build out a network of facilities, but little has come of that partnership. In 2021, amid broad industry questions about the financial viability of anaerobic digestion technology, Bioenergy Devco founder Shawn Kreloff told Waste Dive that "the strongest [companies] have survived." Last year, he stepped away as CEO to take a role on the company's board. His replacement, Thomas, said BTS has room for improvement, and he's brought in fresh leadership to assist with that growth. He joined the company from Meritage Midstream Services II, a Wyoming natural gas provider. In the following months, Thomas brought in other executives from Meritage and new CFO Jason Meek, who joined BTS from anaerobic digestion company PurposeEnergy. Over the past year, Thomas said he's been learning about the anaerobic digestion industry and process, which produces methane and meshes with his experience in the natural gas sector. Thomas is also reorienting BTS toward prospects that make the most economical sense for the company. That includes adding anaerobic digestion capacity to a composting facility in Delaware, which processes waste from the chicken industry. The company is hoping to break ground on that expansion next year. BTS is also in the advanced planning stages for a facility in Gainesville, Georgia, which the company anticipates breaking ground on later this year. Notably, the company's strategic focus does not include a proposed project in Long Beach, California. Last year, the City of Long Beach agreed to enter exclusive negotiations with Bioenergy Devco to build an organics recycling facility on the site of a decommissioned mass burn combustion facility run by Covanta, now Reworld. Thomas said BTS couldn't find a way to make the planned anaerobic digestion facility at the site generate sufficient revenue, and it agreed to part ways with the city earlier this year. Long Beach officials declined to comment on the matter, but in March they acknowledged that plans for the site were shifting due to market conditions. Thomas said he's also been focused on maximizing the potential of the Maryland Bioenergy Center. The facility is capable of processing up to 125,000 metric tons of organic waste, which primarily comes from the food industry. Around the time Thomas joined Bioenergy Devco, the company announced the Maryland facility had reached nameplate capacity. But a problem quickly arose: The county flagged deficiencies in the company's wastewater pretreatment system, which was releasing high levels of substances such as ammonia, nitrogen and total phosphorus. Last fall, the company scaled back the facility's throughput while it identified and installed new technology to reduce wastewater contamination. Thomas said the facility is now scaling back up. The Howard County Department of Public Works confirmed in a statement that BTS 'has made significant progress in upgrading their treatment systems.' In addition to upgrading equipment at the site, BTS Bioenergy is also working to increase revenue from the Maryland Bioenergy Center. Thomas said the tipping fees BTS can charge there have doubled over the past year, and he expects they'll continue to increase. The facility likely won't run at maximum capacity in the near future, Thomas said, and it has yet to reach its revenue ceiling due to high demand for organics processing capacity. The facility may also increase the proportion of its capacity locked up in longer-term feedstock contracts as operations stabilize, Thomas said. 'We're working a combination of both short- and long-term contracts, and that's great because it gives us the flexibility to optimize feedstocks and profitability,' Thomas said. 'Once we get a better view of that combination, we'll work towards putting longer term contracts around those key and critical feedstocks.' Bioenergy Devco received a $30 million investment from Maryland-based Hannon Armstrong Sustainable Infrastructure Capital in 2023, which Thomas said mainly went to improving the Maryland facility. BTS is looking to fundraise 'pretty quickly' to fuel new projects moving forward, he said. In addition, the company is open to other forms of internal growth mechanisms or acquisitions, depending on what's available in the market, according to Thomas. He still believes BTS can be a 'class leader' in the organics processing industry. 'There are a lot of people who are passionate about doing this kind of work,' Thomas said. 'I'm not sure there's anyone who's really rose to the top. We want to be that.' Recommended Reading Bioenergy Devco, growing anaerobic digestion company, names new CEO Sign in to access your portfolio
Yahoo
30-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Amp grows focus on custom MSW sortation offerings
This story was originally published on Waste Dive. To receive daily news and insights, subscribe to our free daily Waste Dive newsletter. Amp, known for its AI-powered sortation technology for recycling, is planning to expand one of its newer offerings: MSW processing. Amp has been 'quietly' ramping up its MSW diversion offerings for the last few years, namely through its Amp One sorting technology, said CEO Tim Stuart. Now, such MSW sorting offerings are a growing part of the company's portfolio, he said during an interview at WasteExpo in May. The Amp One system, designed to be co-located with landfills and transfer stations, can separate bagged trash into mixed recyclables, organics and residue streams. The ramp-up comes a few months after Amp announced it had raised $91 million in series D funding in an effort to accelerate Amp One system deployments. 'We're very confident that we can get maybe a half a dozen of these facilities going over the next three or four years,' he said. One such project is a partnership with the Southeastern Public Service Authority, which handles waste management for eight localities in the region of Portsmouth, Virginia. Amp was already operating a pilot facility there as a partnership with Recycling and Disposal Solutions. Portsmouth officials announced earlier this month that SPSA would partner with Amp to offer the MSW sorting services on a broader regional scale. Stuart estimates the existing Amp One system was processing 30,000 to 40,000 tons of MSW a year, but the new agreement with SPSA would process the authority's estimated 500,000 tons of MSW a year. SPSA solicited proposals last year for disposal diversion solutions due to the closure of the nearby WIN Waste Innovations waste-to-energy plant. At the height of operations, the plant diverted more than 70% of the region's trash from the landfill in nearby Suffolk, the Smithfield Times reported. At the time, the authority estimated that landfill would reach capacity by 2060 unless it pursued diversion options. Amp says it will achieve about a 50% diversion rate for SPSA's material. Amp will operate the facility at a certain per-ton processing rate, but SPSA will still own the material. Amp is in talks to install custom Amp One systems in a handful of other 'large municipalities' either through an RFP or pilot agreement, particularly in regions that have landfill constraints. Amp also plans to work with private haulers that don't internalize their own material, he said. 'There's a ton of municipalities that want more diversion. They want a longer life on their landfills, so this is meant to be good for the environment and good for the economics of things,' he said. 'It's an important component of the business, because by attacking MSW, it's just another way to recycle.' Recommended Reading Waste Connections to build its first MRF in Colorado in partnership with AMP
Yahoo
21-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Jon Vander Ark: AI is ‘wildly oversold,' but it can provide benefits
This story was originally published on Waste Dive. To receive daily news and insights, subscribe to our free daily Waste Dive newsletter. Over the course of a few years, Republic Services is spending more than a billion dollars in capital investments and operational expenditures on digital solutions, CEO Jon Vander Ark said at WasteExpo's Investor Summit on May 5. He said that's giving the company a leg up. "That is a scale difference and scale benefit that only a small number of players can just physically do given the size of their business and scale of their business," Vander Ark said. "We're going to make it effortless to do business with us." New technologies fueled by robotics and artificial intelligence have reshaped certain aspects of the waste and recycling industry in recent years, including in MRFs and increasingly along collection routes. But executives have to be clear-eyed about which technologies are overhyped and which can deliver measurable returns on investment, Vander Ark said. He compared the current boom in AI investment to the "dot-com era" of the late 1990s. He noted that many companies that chased a digital footprint suffered in the 2000 market contraction, but the push to bring brands online "had tremendous and profound impact" more than 20 years later. "I think AI is on a very similar path,' Vander Ark said. "I'm not a huge AI person in the sense of, I think it is wildly oversold in terms of the timing of the impact." For a vertically integrated waste company like Republic, though, there are select applications that Vander Ark sees as beneficial to the bottom line. He said the company is currently looking at taking out repetitive back-office tasks and replacing some human customer service work with AI. Republic has also been investing heavily in digital efficiencies for its fleet. The company has nearly completed an initiative to put tablets in the cabin of each hauling vehicle connected to its "RISE" dispatch platform. On the company's Q4 2024 earnings call, executives reported RISE had generated more than $60 million in revenue in its first year of operation. The company's adoption of the MPower system, which would automate fleet maintenance tracking, is also expected to save another $20 million in revenue annually once fully online by the end of 2025. At the Investor Summit, CFO Brian DelGhiaccio said that Republic could save $5 million per year for every one minute saved across its fleet's routes. Republic has advised it can achieve another $30 million in savings through its digital initiatives, but Vander Ark said that's a conservative estimate. With AI, he anticipates further savings through route optimization. For instance, he noted large container routes typically require picking up waste from a customer, going to a landfill or transfer station, and then going back out. But there may be ways to use AI to create "point-to-point-to-point" routes that are more efficient and take out legs of a vehicle's journey, he noted. Executives also said drivers are in favor of identifying more route efficiencies. "They want that information at their fingertips. They don't want to experience the inefficiencies of, let's say, a traffic jam," DelGhiaccio said. "They'd rather know about that in advance and reroute to make sure that they can be more efficient and get home quicker to their family and finish their routes." Vander Ark was also bearish on the prospect of autonomous hauling vehicles removing the need for drivers, saying that was likely still 50 years away. He said that was because drivers today aren't just maneuvering the vehicle but are overseeing a complex series of tasks. Larson Richardson, senior vice president of operations, said technology in fleets "doesn't replace the need for leadership from an individual." "Technology enables them to have autonomy over their route, but there's certainly elements in their route that requires the athlete behind the steering wheel of the truck to operate in an efficient and effective way," he added. Recommended Reading Republic posts strong start to year amid ambiguity around credits, tariffs Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
