Jun 10 2005
Alton Steel Inc. will add garbage recycling on site by next year.
The steel mill has signed a contract with McMinnville, Tenn.-based WastAway Services LLC to purchase a solid waste recycling system developed by its parent company, Bouldin & Lawson Corp.
The operation, yet to be named, would be built at the former wire mill and initially employ as many as 20.
Two years since restarting steel production at the former Laclede Steel mill, investors have wanted to maximize operations at Alton Steel. Currently, only 150 of the mill's 400 acres are in use, leaving many of buildings vacant. The mill's board of directors want to start business in the in available space related to creating an alternate energy source and recycling.
Pending the outcome of a public hearing and permit application, Alton Steel plans to update utilities and other infrastructure at the building to accommodate the new recycling center.
The new recycling plant will allow garbage trucks hauling household garbage to bring their trash to Alton Steel instead of area landfills and pay the same tipping fee. Alton Steel financial analyst Mike Harris said the steel mill's location is within many garbage truck driver's routes and will save haulers time and money.
Harris estimates the mill could save trash truck drivers as much as $20 per load. He also said it will spare 120 tons of trash for area landfills each day and 31,200 tons a year.
"We know it makes sense from a good community member standpoint," Harris said. "We also want to make sure it will make a little money. It will not be the biggest money maker, but it's a good return on our investment."
Once opened, trucks would dump their trash on the recycling center's floor. A frontloading truck would pick up the garbage and dump it into a shredder. The trash would be dumped into a grinding machine that breaks the garbage down into smaller pieces.
The pieces are cooked in a cooker called "the hog" at 350 to 370 degrees. This process rids the material of bacteria and its smell. The final material is mixed with pine bark and turns to a soil substrate that is sold as potting soil.
Harris said many nurseries are using this soil as their only source of planting soil because it retains a lot of moisture and doesn't require much watering. He also said the raw material that is now mixed into soil, also called "fluff," can be extracted and can be further heated and compacted into a building timbers that have been used to make railroad ties and park benches. This product is both water resistant and fire proof.
Harris said the steel mill has been planning the new recycling center for the past year. He has visited the WastAway plant in McMinnville and has also visited three nurseries in that region that all exclusively use the recycle garbage as soil.
"I think that has incredible potential (in Alton)," he said. "We're going full steam ahead."
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