The dump is where garbage has historically gone to simply rot.
But the economics of going green means more Capital region companies are either diverting debris before it lands at ts final resting place or capturing its spirit to fuel renewable energy.
For
Crutchall Resource Recycling, a Grand Rapids-based company that recently expanded to Lansing, it means reprocessing old roof shingles otherwise destined for the dump into hot-mix asphalt.
At
Friedland Industries, the Lansing company's 120-year history of recycling scrap metal, electrical wiring and paper for viable uses continues, even as another Lansing institution,
Granger, converts organically produced methane gas that emanates from landfill sites into electricity and other energy.
Captured by CrutchallWriters like Richard Florida have posited that reigniting America’s creative economy will hinge on whether we can empower innovation in every employee at every level of a company, from the line worker to the janitorial staff.
Such was the case at Crutchall Resource Recycling, where the worker who oversaw the firm's dumpster operations was so irritated by what he saw littering landfills that he did some research. What he learned is that discarded roof shingles could be used to make asphalt, says Ellie Kane, Crutchall administrator.
Last year in Grand Rapids, Crutchall received the State of Michigan’s first site permit to collect residential shingles and remove them from the waste stream.
The state’s
Department of Environmental Quality issued Crutchall’s permit.
“When we went to state last summer, they were pretty much ready,” Kane says. “They said, 'Sure.' They put together a shingle exemption and then we applied for one.”
The company soon added the West Willow Street collection site in Lansing. So far, eight Lansing-area roofers have signed on to partner with the shingle-to-asphalt recycling effort.
Jackson-based
Billy White Roofing, which does work in Lansing, started taking shingles to Crutchall's site at 2127 W. Willow St. earlier this year. Otherwise the company's scrap ends up at
Liberty Landfill in Jackson.
“Actually, if I'm doing work near the (Lansing) facility, it saves me money and it saves me man hours instead having to drive south to Jackson,” says White. “I'd probably do it some more, he says. “I like to recycle.”
The shingles collected by Crutchall are first tested for cancer-causing materials like asbestos before they are cleaned and ground, Kane says. So far, he says, “we haven't had anything exceed one percent (asbestos).”
Once they’ve been ground up, the shingle bits are poured into a hot asphalt mix that is used to pave parking lots and private roads. The
Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) hasn't approved the asphalt mix for state roads, Kane says.
“They haven't done any testing on it yet,” she says. “The DOT has some pretty strict requirements about what they can use in the design mix.”
In addition to being economically viable, the process also has several environmental benefits. It lightens the load at the landfill—re-roofing a house with a 2,000-square foot roof lands about four tons of tear-off shingles into landfills.
An added benefit may turn up at the gas pump. Reusing a ton of shingles replaces the equivalent of two barrels of oil, which reduces the need for imported foreign crude.
“It's not like we turn it into oil, but it can be used in place of oil,” Kane says.
Gassing Up with GrangerAs garbage decomposes, landfills produce their own gas. In fact, landfills are the largest human-related source of methane gas, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
Lansing’s Granger Electric and Energy Services gladly captures that gas and converts it directly into energy.
Back in 1985, Granger was the first company “east of the Mississippi” to pipe converted methane gas to an industrial customer, according to Joel Zylstra, president and CEO.
It works like this: Landfill gas (LFG) is created as solid waste decomposes. LFG contains 50 percent methane, which is also the key component of the natural gas we all know as a reliable source of heat and power.
Wells and vacuums are used to extract the methane gas from landfills, where it is piped in directly to industrial plants or used to generate electricity.
“That's what we do,” says Zylstra. “We go out there and we harvest and harness that methane that comes off degrading waste and get it to folks who can use it productively.”
At Granger’s
Wood Road Generating Station north of town, the methane is pumped straight to four Caterpillar engine generators, which produce enough electricity to service 2,000 homes. Using the LFG also means the engines save the equivalent of 1.6 million gallons of oil.
It’s not always feasible to pipe the gas directly to where it’s needed, explains Zylstra, but “Where you can't do a pipeline project, you almost always have an electrical grid you can tap into.”
The Granger official predicts that energy legislation recently approved in Michigan—which mandates that 10 percent of the state’s energy come from renewable sources by 2015—will be a catalyst for more landfill-capture projects. Smaller electric plants will likely crop up.
“Where it may or may not have made sense to do one or two (internal combustion) engines before, that now is going to become a very real possibility,” Zylstra says.
Finances with FriedlandSometimes, environmental endeavors can seem a bit dubious, raising questions about whether we’re actually expending more natural resources in the name of being green.
But simple supply and demand is what drives practical recycling efforts, Friedland Industries' John Lancour says.
“There has to be a demand for it on the other end,” Lancour says. “It can't be mandated to just take it out of a landfill. Somebody has to use it.”
Friedland Industries has been recycling scrap metal for 120 years. As countries started to industrialize and make materials out of metals, it didn’t take long for companies to learn “it was cheaper to re-melt rather than bore it out the ground,” Lancour says.
The global demand for metals and paper remains strong enough to make recycling it both a financially and environmentally responsible choice.
Other materials, on the other hand, are still a mixed bag, Lancour says. Plastic milk jugs and water bottles have solid reuses, while there is faint demand for Styrofoam.
Dart Container in Mason, though, does have a recycling facility that accepts Styrofoam, Lancour says.
“Essentially, you can recycle and reuse just about anything,” Lancour says. “It's at what cost do you do that. And who becomes responsible for that?”
“I tell people, 'If you could find a reuse for scrap automobile tires, you'd be a millionaire.' They are a bugaboo for landfills.”
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Larry O'Connor is a freelance writer who is forever separating his white plastic shopping bags from his milk jugs at the recycling center.
Dave Trumpie is the managing photographer for Capital Gains. He is a freelance photographer and owner of Trumpie Photography.
Photos:
Piles of shingles at Crutchall Resource Recycling
Shingles are sorted
Generators at Granger's Wood Road Generating Station
Methane well
Metal compressed into cubes at Friedland
Plastic bottles at the Friedland facility
All Photographs © Dave Trumpie