Processed C&D; materials and MSW from Sun will help fill capacity at waste-to-energy plant.
The governing board of the Solid Waste Authority (SWA) of Palm Beach County, Florida, has voted in favor of bringing supplemental waste fuel to the SWA’s Renewable Energy Facility 2 (REF 2) while there is excess capacity. Along with this, SWA has reported that it will enter into a contract with
Sun Recycling LLC, headquartered in Davie, Florida, to bring processed construction and demolition material and processed municipal solid waste (MSW) from Sun’s Palm Beach and Broward County recycling facilities.
Patti Hamilton, vice president of marketing and communications for Sun Recycling, says the delivery of the waste to the SWA’s new facility also helps meet Florida's state recycling goals, because the state's 75 percent recycling target counts each megawatt-hour of energy produced by a renewable energy facility toward the goal. In addition, Hamilton says, the Florida legislature has recognized that combusting waste materials for energy production is a preferred alternative to landfilling, therefore waste-to-energy facilities are permitted to maximize acceptance and processing of nonhazardous wastes.
"Taken together, these two state policies identify a second benefit for importing the material beyond the economic benefits to the residents of Palm Beach County," Hamilton says. "By recovering the energy from the post-recycling construction and demolition material and MSW, nearly 100 percent recycling can be achieved. This further moves our goal of 'Recycling for Zero Waste.'"
The projected net revenue to SWA from the import of the supplemental waste fuel is estimated at about $18 million over five years. According to SWA, the majority of the revenue will be returned to residential and commercial property owners in the form of lower annual disposal assessments, and a portion will be used for community cleanup/beautification projects. The lower assessment rates will go in effect on Oct. 1, 2015. Initial supplemental waste loads from Sun Recycling should begin arriving in late February 2015, the SWA says.
SWA reports that the receipt of this material is contingent upon the availability of excess capacity at its REF 2. As the waste generated from Palm Beach County increases over the next five to seven years, the importation of supplemental waste fuel will be phased out.
The agency says this isn’t the first time waste has been imported to Palm Beach County facilities. In 2008, the SWA entered into an agreement with Waste Management Inc. to bring Martin County waste to the SWA’s existing Renewable Energy Facility 1 in exchange for the SWA delivering an equal quantity of Palm Beach County waste from the SWA’s South County transfer station to the Wheelabrator North waste-to-energy plant in Broward County. This business arrangement saved SWA about $350,000 per year in transportation costs, the authority says.
In a separate motion, the SWA’s governing board voted against contracting with Georgia-based Return Logistics International Corp. for the supply of supplemental waste mostly consisting of expired pharmaceuticals and off-spec health and beauty aids.