unitex@rubbs.fidonet.org (unitex) (10/11/89)
Forwarded-From : Greenlink October 6, 1989
FAIRFIELD OPENS RECYCLING PLANT
FAIRFIELD, Conn. (UPI) -- A recycling facility billed as the first of
its kind built by a New England town opened Wednesday to turn leaves,
brush, yard wastes and sewage sludge into marketable compost, officials
said.
"This facility, the first of its type and magnitude, is a practical,
beneficial solution for Fairfield because the town will no longer have
to ship wastes to distant incinerators or landfill sites," said First
Selectman Jacquelyn C. Durrell.
The $3 million facility will convert to compost all of the leaves,
yard wastes, and sewage sludge generated by the town and is expected to
save about $100,000 a year over previous disposal costs, said Durrell.
The system is capable of handling about 4,000 wet tons per year of
wastewater sludge and about 16,000 cubic yards per year of shredded
brush, leaves, grass and wood wastes. It is able to turn wastes into
marketable compost in 21 days.
"The process is odor free," said Richard White, Fairfield's chief
operating engineer and facility manager. A filter is used to remove any
odor-causing agents in the plant's emissions, he said.
The major reason for the town's decision to build the facility was the
state's limit on the disposal of leaves by burning or burying them in
landfills, said Durrell.
John Anderson, deputy commissioner of the state Department of
Environmental Protection, on hand for the opening of the plant, pointed
to a trend in tougher waste disposal laws.
Anderson cited federal legislation mandating an end to ocean dumping
of sewage sludge by 1991, the enactment of increasingly stringent state
laws to limit burning or landfill disposal of leaves, grass and brush
and soaring waste disposal costs.
The composting system offers "a simple, reliable, cost-effective
solution to the problem of recycling municipal and industrial organic
wastes," Anderson said.
The recycling plant utilizes a system developed by International
Process Systems of Glastonbury.
It also could be used to compost shredded papers, food wastes and any
other organic or carbon materials.
"Our technology can be adapted for economical operations to the scale
required by each individual municipality," said Archie Albright,
president of International Process Systems.
Albright said while Fairfield has the first municipally owned facility
using the IPS system, the company has operated the same system for the
past four years on a commercial scale at its EarthGro complex in
Lebanon, Conn.
Anheuser-Busch Co. in Baldwinsville, N.Y., currently is operating a 70
wet ton per day facility for composting brewery sludge, Albright said.
Nine more IPS recycling facilities are scheduled to begin construction
in 1989 and the company is negotiating with more than 50 municipalities
in New York, Pennsylvania, Maine, New Hampshire, Connecticut, Vermont,
Rhode Island, Florida and California.
####
* Origin: TouchStone HST: A FINE Standard (509)292-8178 (1:346/1.0)
---
Patt Haring | United Nations | Did u read
patth@sci.ccny.cuny.edu | Information | misc.headlines.unitex
patth@ccnysci.BITNET | Transfer Exchange | today?
-=- Every child smiles in the same language. -=-