v>EPA
JOBS
THROUGH
RECYCLIHG
NEW YORK STATE
Office of RECYCLING
1ARKET DEVELOPMENT
United States
Environmental Protection
Agency
Solid Waste
and Emergency Response
(5306W)
EPA530-F-99-002
April 1999
www.epa.gov/jtr
JTR Grantee Series
New York
N
ew York provides technical and financial assistance to recycling organizations
through its Office of Recycling Market Development (ORMD). Started in
1987, ORMD originally concentrated on assisting municipalities with market-
I ing their recyclables, but the agency
soon began focusing on improving the recycling
industry and assisting businesses with waste pre-
vention. ORMD is housed in the New York
Department of Economic Development, where
staff have developed expertise in recycling mar-
kets for a variety of materials including industrial
byproducts, wood, glass, and plastics.
A 1994 Jobs Through Recycling (JTR) grant
enabled ORMD to develop and complete several
long-term projects, which helped establish a
thriving recycling marketplace in New York State.
ORMD selected target materials by examining
the state's recycling market dynamics. The agency
identified four materials with high recycling
growth potential: recovered paper, paper sludge,
wood, and plastics. ORMD initiated the follow-
ing projects for these materials:
Developing community and industry partner-
ships to demonstrate cost-effective means for
collecting wastepaper while ensuring fiber
quality to paper mills.
Helping paper mills identify recycling options
for the sludge generated by the recycling
process.
Developing facilities that manufacture pallets,
furniture, and flooring from wood recovered
from New York's commercial and industrial
sector.
Providing technical assistance to help plastics
processors, reclaimers, and manufacturers
efficiently produce and use postconsumer
resin feedstocks.
Grant Type: RBAC
Office Awarded:
Mew York State Office of
^Recycling Market
Development
- Project Partners:
^American Plastics Council
~ Empire State Center for
Recycling Enterprise
Development
*" Madison County, New York
~~ New York State Energy
~ Research and Development
Authority
- Procter and Gamble
- Schenectady County, New York
Year Awarded: 1994
~ Funding:
-^1$ 500,000 in EPA funding
*- 4 604,583 in state funding
-$ 1,104,583 in total funding
Materials Targeted:
Paper, Paper mill sludge,
Wood, Plastics
Contact Information:
Linda Jacobs
New York State Department of
Economic Development
~ Office of Recycling Market
; ... Development
\: One Commerce Plaza
[. Albany, New York 12245
! Phone: 518486-6292
Fax:518473-6380
) Printed on paper that contains at least 30 percent postconsumer fiber.
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JOBS THROUGH RECYCLING
PROGRAM PROJECTS
Recovered paper. ORMD researched
opportunities for recycling three
types of recovered paper: boxboard,
residential mixed paper, and office
paper. These studies also examined
the economic feasability of source
separating boxboard. The boxboard
studies located a tissue manufacturer
willing to incorporate local boxboard
feedstock into its manufacturing
process.
Paper mill sludge. ORMD helped a
business negotiate a beneficial use
determination with die state's
Department of Environmental
Conservation that allowed the use of
paper mill sludge for a broader range
of industrial applications. The agency
also funded research that identified
cost-effective sludge processing and
manufacturing practices, reuse
options for sludge, and markets for
absorbents made from sludge.
Wood. ORMD's partner, Empire
State Center for Recycling Enterprise
Development (ESCRED), provided
business planning and development
assistance to strengthen the states
wood recycling market. Specifically,
ESCRED helped establish Big City
Forest, a wood products remanufac-
turer, and supported the company's
growth and development with work-
force training assistance, production
planning, and product marketing
assistance. Although the project expe-
rienced a successful start, due to a
variety of circumstances the enter-
prise is no longer in operation.
Plastics. ORMD conducted a plastics
optimization project, examining plas-
tics reprocessing systems and helping
New York plastics recyclers imple-
ment cost-cutting tactics previously
developed by die American Plastics
Council. The agency conducted
onsite assessments at 18 community
collection programs, handlers,
reclaimers, and recycled product
manufacturers and developed cost-
cutting implementation plans for
each. To promote durable plastics
recycling, the agency conducted mar-
ket research, facilitated links between
buyers and suppliers, and initiated a
research and development partner-
ship widi private industry.
CHAL1ENGES OVERCOME
Limited staffing resources.
Addressing the recycling challenges
facing New York businesses required
a detailed understanding of certain
recycling market segments, industrial
processes, and materials. ORMD
staff specialized in particular
ORMD approached recycling
from an economic rather
than environmental
perspective. The agency
demonstrated that the
recycling market presented a
strong business opportunity
for enterprising companies.
commodities, such as wood or plas-
tics, and continually researched new
developments with these materials.
Projects requiring more technical
knowledge than ORMD possessed
were outsourced to qualified
contractors.
Volatile nature of recycling markets.
The prices of recyclables, like that of
many commodities, vary greatly from
year to year. ORMD conducted
detailed annual assessments of New
York's recycling markets to track
market dynamics and adjusted its
yearly project priorities accordingly.
Geographically large service area. In
order to cover a relatively large geo-
graphic area, ORMD established a
number of regional offices to supple-
ment its Albany, New York, head-
quarters. Regional personnel were
better able to visit assisted businesses
to learn about their needs.
IESSONS LEARNED
Set goals and measure performance.
For each project, ORMD defined
measures of success (with regard to
employment, capacity, capital invest-
ment, and other indicators) that were
focused and ambitious. Before start-
ing new projects, ORMD negotiated
performance criteria with contractors
and wrote these measures into their
contracts. The agency required con-
tractors to periodically report on
their progress toward these goals,
which eliminated surprises at the
projects completion.
Partner with small business assis-
tance centers and technical and
business schools. Leverage existing
business assistance providers to
secure product development services
for new recycling businesses.
These providers can free up agency
resources normally spent addressing
the special needs of startup
businesses.
Recycling enterprises should take
one step at a time to build a sus-
tainable customer base. Advise com-
panies to look into niche markets
that provide high profit margins.
Startup recycling businesses should
not focus on their sources of supply
but rather on the market potential
for their finished product. It also is
important to develop a product line
that keeps materials moving, avoid-
ing warehousing costs from a build-
up of inventory.
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JTR GRANTEE SERIES: NEW YORK
ACCOMPLISHMENTS
During the grant period, ORMD pro-
vided a range of technical and financial
assistance to community recycling pro-
grams, reclaimers, and recyclers. Staff
worked to identify barriers to accepting
recycled feedstock and provided hands-
on expertise to cover technical skill gaps
at New York businesses.
For each project, ORMD
defined measures of
success that were
focused and ambitious.
ORMD approached recycling from an
economic rather than environmental
perspective. The agency demonstrated
that the recycling market presented a
strong business opportunity for enter-
prising companies. This fact, combined
with the agency's insistence on provid-
ing direct, expert financial and technical
assistance, helped build solid business
relationships that led to the adoption of
new recycling technology and processes
in New York.
Specific accomplishments include:
Established three joint ventures
between New York communities,
commercial establishments, and
paper mills to implement cost-
efficient wastepaper recovery
programs. These joint ventures con-
tributed to an increase in the utiliza-
tion of postconsumer wastepaper in
New York by 50 tons per day.
Worked with the New York State
Energy and Research and
Development Authority
(NYSERDA) to identify beneficial
uses for paper mill sludge to lower
disposal costs for struggling New
York paper mills. ORMD and
NYSERDA helped three companies
convert the material into useful
products such as animal bedding
and industrial absorbents.
Developed and recommended
process and technology changes at
1 8 firms participating in the plastics
optimization project. The project's
cost-optimization tactics included
developing long-term sales and
RESULTS
supply contracts, auto-sorting plastic
bottles by resin or color, and bulk
shipment of postconsumer flake or
pellet. The agency helped implement
its cost-optimization recommenda-
tions at seven companies, four of
which increased their utilization of
postconsumer resin feedstocks.
PROGRAM FUTURE
New York provides ORMD relatively
stable annual funding through its
Environmental Protection Fund. In the
coming years, ORMD will continue to
support projects that capitalize on the
economic development opportunities
associated with reuse, reduction, and
recycling.
Increasingly, ORMD is working with
the National Institute of Standards and
Technology's Manufacturing Extension
Partnerships (MEPs). MEPs provide
small and medium-sized manufacturers
access to a nationwide network of man-
ufacturing and business specialists and
resources. MEPs are eligible to receive
agency funding through a competitive
selection process.
Full-Time Equivalents Created:
Technical Assistance:
Amount of Capital Invested:
512 businesses assisted
$5.34 million
Volume of New Capacity Created:
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JOBS THROUGH RECYCLING
RECYCLINGCORP.
"With ORMD's assistance, our business has grown
significantly."
JAMES BAKER
General Manager, wTe Recycling Corporation
"^j" "IT "T~ "TTe Recycling Corporation launched its polyethylene terephalate
\ ^/^ / (PET) recycling operation in Albany, New York, in 1990. The
%^% / P'51111 generates PET pellets and flake for the production of a range
V Y of products including nonfood and beverage bottles, food packag-
ing, clamshell-style containers, point-of-purchase displays, strapping, and engi-
neered resins for injection molding parts or sheet extrusion. In the early 1990s, the
plant's major supply stream came from bottle deposit programs. Plastic from com-
munity collection programs provided a much-needed opportunity to increase
capacity utilization at the plant.
One of the major obstacles to accepting
recovered PET from community __
programs was the high rate of
polyvinyl chloride (PVC) cont-
amination, which dramatically
reduced the quality of wTe's finished pellets and flake. PET and PVC are visually
indistinguishable from one another and share many of the same physical proper-
ties. Without PVC detection equipment, it was extremely difficult for wTe to sep-
arate the two materials. JTR funding allowed ORMD to help die city of Albany
lease PVC detection and sorting equipment to wTe. Using x-rays and precision air
jets, the new equipment removes approximately 90 percent of the contaminants
from the company's PET stream.
By securing PVC detection equipment from the city of Albany, wTe was able to
increase its capacity utilization to 67 percent and decrease its marginal costs. wTe
accepted nearly 2 million pounds of recycled plastics from curbside collection pro-
grams in the first 4 months of 1998 alone. The added capacity enabled wTe to
hire 7 new employees, and die company plans to hire an additional 14 employees.
Finally, the added capacity generated a $600,000 increase in the company's annual
budget (not including raw materials purchased).
Without ORMD's assistance, wTe would not have accepted recyclables from com-
munity recycling programs as soon as it did. By leasing the equipment, wTe was
able to compete with other plastics processors that were already accepting low-cost
plastics from curbside programs.
Publications
Beneficial Uses of Paper Mill
Residuals for New York State's
Recycled-Paper Milk BES
Technologies, 1995. Provides an
overview of the waste treatment
and management practices of
New York's paper recycling
industry including technologies
to beneficially reuse mill residu-
als and the technical, regulatory,
and economic barriers to that
reuse.
Plastics Recycling Cost Optimiza-
tion Project. R.W. Beck in
association with Bottom Line
Consulting, 1998. This report
validates several strategies to
reduce plastics recycling system
costs, improve recycled plastics
quality, and increase recycled
plastics use in products.
Wood Pallet Exchange Business
':: Opportunity. Adirondack North
Country Association, 1997- This
report asserts there is a strong
opportunity for the establishment
-7 of a financially stable pallet
repair and exchange operation
in northern New York.
Schenectady County Boxboard
Recycling Project. Schenectady
County Recycling Program,
1997. This document analyzes
the cost of sorting and processing
boxboard by the Schenectady
County Recycling Program.
Bonded InsulationCCNB
(Boxboard) Testing Project: Final
Report, 1996. This report ana-
lyzes the technical and economic
feasibility of using boxboard as a
substitute for old newspapers to
manufacture cellulose insulation.
Various fact sheets describing
ORMD's projects and services.
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