Firm Proposes Materials Recovery Center in Lancaster

Ecolution plans to build a more than $100 million high-tech automated recycling center in Lancaster that keeps waste out of landfills and reuses it for energy and other purposes. Materials recovery facilities are not new in Southern California or other parts of the country, but what makes the Ecolution center stand apart is the ability to pick out 20 types of recyclables and less reliance on manual labor. Private financing will pay for the $100 million first phase. The city will assist Ecolution in finding a 40-acre parcel on which to build and in expediting the permitting process with Los Angeles County and the state. While not expected to open for two years, the company’s plans benefit from good timing. The Puente Hills landfill, one of the largest landfills in country, will close in 2013 leaving Los Angeles County with one less place to dump its garbage. A new state law requires that 75 percent of waste be diverted from landfills by 2020 and that multi-family housing and certain businesses recycle. “Everyone in Los Angeles is scrambling to alter what they are doing to meet those requirements,” said Ecolution President and CEO Tim Fuller. By locating in Lancaster, Ecolution chose a city making big strides in alternative energy production having attracted solar projects from e-Solar, Beautiful Earth Group, Solar City, and US Topco Energy. City leaders have the goal of being off the grid within the next eight years. When at full production the Ecolution facility will generate $6 million a year for the city through a per-ton host fee. “We are creating our own revenue streams,” said City Council member Marvin Crist. Construction of the facility will create 100 jobs. Operating the center 20 hours a day, six days a week will require about 200 workers with a handful being manual labor for hand sorting the recyclable waste and performing quality control but with most operating, maintaining and calibrating the equipment. There will be two full-time engineers on staff, Fuller said. Residents would not have to separate their recyclables into different containers, which in turn brings cost savings to the city in maintaining its streets, Crist said. “The most wear and tear on the streets is from the trash trucks,” he said. Fuller, a long-time Lancaster resident and car dealer, turned to business partners with experience in waste hauling and materials recovery. Copper Creek Capital Group LLC in San Francisco is providing financing for the project. The firm has invested in other alternative energy projects. The equipment proposed for the Lancaster facility has been used all over the world and adapted from machinery used in the mining industry. What Ecolution has done is to bring them together in a process that has a pending patent, Fuller said. The sorting machines separate out recyclables based on the weight and shape of the waste, so that even bottles can be recognized. There is a 95 percent performance guarantee the equipment will sort the desired recyclables, Fuller said. “We are confident in the reliability and dependability of the machines,” Fuller said. Wet organic matter and food waste will be recycled using a method that captures methane gas that can be converted into compressed natural gas. That gas can be used in city-owned vehicles. “At the beginning we are looking at this as a cost to us rather than a revenue producer,” Fuller said. Los Angeles County has been preparing for a loss of landfill space since 2002 when it approved the final permit for the Puente Hills landfill. County environmental officials turned to the private sector with a conversion technology demonstration project. Ecolution was among the 37 companies responding with proposals of diverting waste away from landfills. Lancaster was among the cities expressing an interest in the conversion technology, said Coby Skye, the county’s project manager for the program. “Ecolution has been talking with the county in terms of providing the infrastructure and wanting to work with the county to facilitate a project in Lancaster,” Skye said. For the location in Lancaster, Fuller wants to have land with an existing industrial zoning, close to utilities, a good soil quality, and no disruption to traffic patterns or residential neighborhoods. The company has three to four sites in mind, but is keeping others in consideration, Fuller said. County officials visited conversion technology projects in the U.S. and other parts of the world as part of their research for the county program. What they found is that these centers can co-exist with residential neighborhoods, Skye said. One facility in Japan had an educational center that school children would visit to learn about recycling. “The community appreciated having the facility there,” Skye said. “They could bring recyclables and use the community center and a pool warmed by excess heat from the conversion.”