Wood/biomass

Wisconsin C&D recycling facility begins accepting dead trees

Dane County, Wisconsin, has begun recycling clean wood waste at the Dane County Landfill’s C&D recycling facility in Madison, Wisconsin.

County Executive Joe Parisi noted in a press release in late June that municipalities in the county have been overwhelmed with clean wood waste due to the prevalence of the emerald ash borer, a tiny beetle that has killed millions of ash trees in North America.

Due to the beetle, local private and public facilities have become overwhelmed and have stopped taking wood waste into their plants.

“This is a common sense solution, and we are uniquely able to recycle wood waste,” says Parisi. “Opening up the recycling facility to process clean wood will help local municipalities, businesses and residents in Dane County with a need no other entity is filling.”

The county worked with the operators of its recently opened C&D recycling facility, Landfill Reduction & Recycling, and expanded the partnership to include wood recycling.

The new C&D recycling facility opened in February. The facility separates mixed loads of debris from construction and demolition projects and recycles them.

Dane County is charging $40 per ton to handle the wood waste.

According to the county, quality logs that enter the facility will be made into urban lumber, while the rest will likely be recycled for mulch or biomass fuel.

The C&D recycling facility is expected to save the county more than $600,000 per year because it no longer has to haul these materials outside of the county to be recycled.

The ordinance for the county to begin accepting wood waste at the facility was introduced June 16 to Dane County Board of Supervisors. The ordinance created the tipping fee for the purpose of clean wood waste recycling.

The board approved the ordinance July 14, and the clean wood recycling program commenced Aug. 1.

Harvest Urban Wood Recycling and Smithers Enterprises merge

Harvest Power Inc., Waltham, Massachusetts announced that its Canadian subsidiary, Harvest Urban Wood Recycling Ltd., New Westminster, British Columbia, has merged with Smithers Enterprises Inc. (SEI), Vancouver, British Columbia, to expand its wood recycling services in the Metro Vancouver region.

“Harvest’s market leadership and scale, combined with our strong customer base and strategic location, will enable us to better serve our customers and the region,” says Sam Monaco, senior vice president of Harvest. “Diverting clean wood from the landfill is one of the top sustainability priorities of the region. We’re pleased to expand our support for the community’s recycling and clean energy efforts through this merger.”

The metro Vancouver region’s clean wood disposal ban requires the recycling of solid wood, lumber and pallets. Harvest and SEI receive construction and demolition debris, extract the metals for recycling, and process the clean wood into biofuels for industrial customers. This is designed to both significantly reduce the quantity of material being landfilled and provides cleaner alternatives to traditional fossil fuels, enhancing the region’s air quality and reducing harmful greenhouse gas emissions.

Harvest’s other facilities in metro Vancouver—its composting and clean energy facility in Richmond and its organic transfer station and retail soil yard in North Shore—are not part of the merger.