What if Your Waste Stream Could Become Part of Your Revenue Stream?

Discover your opportunities at the Greater Puget Sound
Waste-to-Profit Workshop and Networking Event

hosted by By-Product Synergy NW

March 17^th, 2010 – 8:00 AM–1:30 PM
Bertha Knight Landes Room, Seattle City Hall
600 4th Avenue, Seattle

Puget Sound business leaders will have an opportunity to explore productive and innovative uses for waste materials and resources at the third annual Waste-to-Profit Workshop and Networking Event on Wednesday, March 17^th. 

The event will convene Puget Sound area companies and organizations in a facilitated process to spark new opportunities for materials and resource exchange across sectors. Bart Kale, Environmental Health and Safety Director for Nucor Steel, will give opening remarks highlighting how Nucor's work in managing environmental impacts contributes to the region's industrial excellence and economic development as well as increasing profitability for the company. Rick Flaherty, CEO of Leader International, fabricators of commercial & institutional site furnishings, and Rich Bacigalupi, of E3 Energy Partners will discuss innovative approaches that are creating exciting new business opportunities. Tom Williamson of Correctional Industries will speak about the innovative mattress disassembly program they have started that is creating materials for reuse and significantly reducing a major contributor to landfills.

The program includes a fast track materials exchange workshop to engage participants in identifying opportunities for their companies and organizations. Technical experts from Impact Washington, Pollution Prevention Resource Center, the Washington State Department of Ecology and Washington State University will help identify opportunities. Karl Ostrom and Mary Rose, Co-Directors of NBIS and BPS NW project managers will facilitate.

By-Product Synergy NW member companies have developed an impressive track record of waste reduction and innovation that is helping to reduce costs and create new business opportunities.  

In the project’s first year Genie industries and Nucor Steel initiated a collaboration on steel dust and shavings that helped Genie save shipping and landfill costs and provided another source of recycled steel to Nucor. Canyon Creek Cabinet Company found considerable savings by re-distilling acetone on-site, reducing the amount purchased annually and saving the company money on disposal costs.

Lafarge Cement, working with the Department of Ecology, has found a productive use for thousands of tons of rock cobble that used to go to landfill; this material has been cleared for reuse and can be made into concrete blocks for road dividers and other aggregate products.  The company expects to divert up to 8000 tons of material annually – converting a significant waste disposal cost into an income stream.

Inspired by the 2009 waste-to-profit event, the Washington State Correctional Industries Program has developed a mattress disassembly and recycling program. A typical mattress is composed of steel, wood, cotton, and polyurethane foam, making them difficult to recycle. Correctional Industries created a system to convert old mattresses into usable materials. Metal scrap is sent for re-smelting; fabric and foam can be used for insulation, carpet padding and other uses. The wood frames are converted to chips and shipped to Oregon to be made into pulp. The pulp is a resource for the 100% recycled paper made at Grays Harbor Paper Company in Hoquiam. The project is a win-win for local industry, for the environment, and for job creation and training.

These are examples of the synergies that develop when a roomful of business people let ideas flow about materials needs and wastes. Potential synergies exist among companies, but businesses don’t often know about them because they are insulated within their own industry or business. By-Product Synergy NW actively engages member companies in the discovery process and facilitates cross-sector collaborations.

More information about By-Product Synergy NW and the Waste-to-Profit Workshop and Networking Event, is available at http://www.nbis.org/.

Registration for the Greater Puget Sound Waste-to-Profit event is $75 for non-members; $50 for NBIS and By-Product Synergy NW members and government and non-profit employees. The registration link is: http://wastetoprofitpugetsound.eventbrite.com/

Inquiries may be addressed to Mary Rose, Co-Director, NBIS at  425-445-2600  425-445-2600 (cell) and  206-408-7194  206-408-7194 or maryr@nbis.org.

www.nbis.org