By Jamie Barrie C ovanta Holding Corporation, which operates modern Energy-from-Waste facilities and safely convert approximately 20 million tonnes of waste from municipalities and businesses into clean, renewable electricity to power and recycles approximately 500,000 tons of metal, would have thought that loose pocket change from their incinerator could add up. Well, over the course of a year, those charred coins add up to about $360,000. This is money that is literally piling up as the company waits for the U.S. Mint to resume coin purchases under an exchange program it suspended in November. It is estimated that almost $62 million in loose change is accidentally thrown away every year in the U.S. which ends up in landsites all across the U.S. “It’s amazing what people throw away,” said Alex Piscitelli, who manages the plant in Chester, Pennsylvania, where Covanta developed its technique to separate change from other burnt metal. Covanta stepped up its efforts in 2011 to recover metals
from the ashes at its power plants, spending about $70 million on powerful magnets and other equipment. Over five years, it has recovered more than 2 million tonnes of metal that was sold to recycling companies. That gen- erated $61 million last year, or 3.7 percent of Covanta’s revenue. In 2017, the company plans to open a central facility to sort aluminum, copper and coins captured at plants in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic. The Covanta process uses the trash as fuel to produce steam to power the generator, consuming every flamma- ble scrap of trash and reducing it to a pile of ash, stone and metal. These then get moved onto conveyor belts and pass by powerful magnets. Metals containing iron will be attracted to the magnets and collected as the Aluminum, copper and other non-ferrous metals are sorted, leaving nothing but ash and stone behind. The process is both environmentally friendly and cost effective as landsite costs continue to increase and sites start to fill up making it a great opportunity to cash in on their waste management solution as a commercial viable option to other fuel sources.
18
SPOTLIGHT ON BUSINESS • NOVEMBER 2016
Made with FlippingBook - Online magazine maker