Waste Management to Develop 60 New Landfill Gas-to-Energy Projects
Waste Management Inc. announced plans to spend roughly $400 million over the next five years to build facilities at 60 landfills to convert methane gas to electricity, its most ambitious renewable energy project to date. According to the EPA, landfills are the leading source of methane emissions in the US, accounting for 34% of the total. Methane is the second-biggest man-made contributor to global warming behind carbon dioxide. Waste Management already boasts an impressive portfolio of landfill-gas-to-energy projects, but this latest move is its most ambitious effort yet. The 60 projects would add 230 megawatts of generation capacity bringing its total to 700 megawatts. There are a total of 423 landfill-gas-to-energy projects in the US which generate 1,200 megawatts of power. The EPA believes that there are an additional 560 landfills which would be good candidates for such projects...Read More »
Veolia ES Acquires Landfill and Operations in Sumner IL from Waste Management
Veolia Environmental Services is acquiring some collection and disposal operations around Sumner, IL from Waste Management. Among them is the Lawrence County Landfill which will be renamed the Veolia ES Sumner Landfill, Inc. The acquired hauling operations serve 20,000 customers in several adjacent Illinois and Indiana counties. Financial terms were not disclosed...Read More »
Former CFO of Safety-Kleen Pleads Guilty to Fraud
Paul Humphreys, the former CFO of Safety-Kleen who was indicted in December 2002, recently pleaded guilty to securities fraud in connection with a scheme to overstate earnings from 1998 to 2000. Back then Rollins Environmental had just acquired the company and management was under pressure to meet earnings targets predicted at the time of the merger. Evidently Humphreys made accounting entrees in the general ledger known as 'top side' adjustments and directed others to do the same. He faces up to 45 years in prison and $2.25 million in fines...Read More »
Mislabeled Oxygen Generators Fueled Apex NC Fire
Investigators for the U.S. Chemical Safety Board have concluded that oxygen generators similar to those blamed for the 1996 ValuJet crash likely caused the rapid spread of a chemical fire at EQ Industrial Services plant in Apex, NC. Moreover, the oxygen generators had been misidentified as general oxidizer waste by aircraft maintenance facility before being sent to Apex. Investigators believe the October 5, 2006 Apex fire began in an area where pool chemicals and other material were stored; it then spread to an area where the flammable wastes were kept. The massive blaze led to the evacuation of 16,000 residents...Read More »
Waste Management Shuffles Some Senior Group Leaders
Waste Management is promoting and shuffling some of its senior group leaders following the retirement of Southern Group head David Hopkins. His vacated seat will be filled by James Trevathan, previously head of the Eastern Group. And, being promoted to run the Eastern Group is Brett Frazier. Frazier, who joined Waste Management in 2000 and has 25 years in the waste industry, held various successful roles related to improving operating efficiencies...Read More »
Sims Group Forms Joint Venture with Adams Steel
Sims Group Limited said that it plans to merge its Southern Californian Metal Recycling assets with those of Adams Steel LLC to create a new entity called SA Recycling LLC. The venture will combine Sims' deep water facility at the Port of Los Angeles with Adams Steel's two inland shredding operations and extensive network of inland feeder yards and serve customers in Southern California, Arizona, Southern Nevada and Northern Mexico. The combined business is expected to handle in excess of 2 million tons of ferrous scrap and nearly 100,000 tons of non ferrous scrap (including non ferrous shredder residue) and have revenues in excess of $600 million...Read More »
Clean Harbors to Acquire Certain Assets of Romic Environmental
Clean Harbors, Inc. has reached an agreement with Romic Environmental to buy seven of their service centers with estimated annual revenues of $25 to $30 million. Like Clean Harbors, Palo Alto, CA-based Romic specializes in the collection and recycling of both hazardous and non-hazardous waste materials. According to Alan S. McKim, Chairman & CEO of Clean Harbors, "The location of the seven service centers is an ideal fit with our current network and is in-line with our strategy to grow our Technical Services business in under-penetrated markets."...Read More »
EU Clears Veolia To Buy German Waste Company Sulo
The European Commission approved Veolia Environnement SA's previously announced deal to buy German waste company Sulo for EUR1.45 billion ($1.97 billion). Sulo earns EUR1.2 billion in annual revenues and employs more than 8, 000 people...Read More »
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