On Tuesday night, Feb. 14, the city council take another innovative step by approving an exclusive agreement with Ecolution, a waste separation and recovery system that won’t require residents to decide what should and shouldn’t be recycled.
Ecolution’s “GreenStream” system separates mixed municipal solid waste into 20 highly concentrated material streams consisting of recyclable commodities, wet and dry organic fuels, e-Waste, household hazardous waste and inert materials such as rocks, soil and concrete.
For the residents, it means no more separating their trash, placing it into three different bins and lugging the bins out to the curb, said Tim Fuller, president of the company.
“The proposed development agreement between the city of Lancaster and Ecolution represents an innovative way of looking at how the city manages and utilizes waste streams. Each year, thousands of tons of municipal solid waste (MSW) are deposited in local landfills, with millions of dollars in untapped recyclable materials being buried beneath the earth. Ecolution’s facility would use state of the art technology to mine, separate, and recover up to 85% of the recycled materials that currently exist in Lancaster’s waste stream. This represents an approximate efficiency increase of 49%. At capacity, the Materials Recovery and Conversion Facility could generate up to $5 million in annual revenue for the City, while sustaining nearly 200 permanent green collar jobs. During construction, the facility would create nearly 100 construction-related jobs for the community,” according to a city report.
“Economic development remains a top priority as the city of Lancaster continues to work with local businesses through these challenging economic times,” said Councilman Marvin Crist. “Our goal is to support as many local businesses and opportunities as possible, in order to create more local jobs.”
Another 200 permanent jobs will be needed to run the plant. After the plant begins operation, it also will provide more than $5 million of revenue for the city, according to City Manager Mark Bozigian.
The city has agreed to help Ecolution find a suitable 40-acrr site for the plant, Bozigian said , adding, “That doesn’t mean we will buy the site for them.”
However, even if the city did buy the land, when the plant is fully operational, the city will receive $5 million to $6 million back in revenue, Bozigian said.
Another plus for the city using the plant is that there won’t be the odor or the problems that attract vermin and birds like that of a landfill, Fuller said.
And, any organic material remaining that would produce methane will be safely captured and converted into gas for fuel in more economical and safer way that some landfills do today, he said.
Because the city’s landfill already accepts waste from out of the area and because the La Puente landfill is set to close in 2013, more waste will be hauled into the local landfills. If the Ecolution plant is operating, it can take the waste rather than add to local landfills.
Another benefit of the project is that it would help increase the recycling and landfill diversion rate in Lancaster while making it less burdensome and more cost effective to local residents and businesses.
Moving away from the current three-bin collection process will result in fewer waste collection trucks on city streets, which will help reduce the waste collection costs for residents and businesses as well as costs of street repairs.
Through this agreement, the city also would provide staff assistance to help Ecolution identify potential waste streams to support its facility and provide additional assistance to help the company better understand the approval process.
The exclusive negotiating agreement would be effective for a period of 90 days. During that time, if both the city and Ecolution determine that the project is feasible, then a separate disposition and development agreement would be created to outline specifics regarding the development of the facility in Lancaster.
The agreement does not require any financial commitment from the city of Lancaster, however, through this partnership agreement, the city would commit to direct its local waste stream to Ecolution’s proposed MRF facility for a 20-year period subject to existing contractual obligations.
No decision has been made as to what waste hauler the city will contract with but the company selected will collect one bin and haul all waste to facility.
According to Ecolution officials, this will stabilize costs of waste collection for residents and businesses rather that the rates being raised when new federal requirements begin.
If the project is successful, Ecolution also may build more plants in Antelope Valley. And it has already attracted several companies that want to purchase the recycled materials from Ecolution, including one that said it would consider constructing a plant in Lancaster.
