A Word About Recycling with Ollie Maier
An article in a recent Resource Recycling newsletter caught my eye since it talks about a major recycling company located in Austin, a company which many of you may be aware of. And has joined forces with another company. “The CEO of Balcones Resources says having Closed Loop Partners as its majority owner will help drive the recycling company’s growth, including expansion of its footprint,” the article begins. He mentioned Balcones was looking at expansion opportunities not only in other parts of Texas, but also in the rest of the United States. He felt now being associated with the Closed Loop Partners not only gave their company more credibility but also more publicity. The deal with Closed Loop Partners was finalized on Oct. 1 with their deal to purchase 80% of Balcones’ stock. It was Closed Loop Partners first acquisition, but they have future plans for more.
Balcones Resources has Texas facilities in Austin and Dallas and another in Little Rock, Arkansas. It provides a number of recycling and related services; including materials collection and document destruction.
I found it recently did a $6 million retrofit of its Austin materials recovery facility, which handles the city’s residential material. Included in this project was installing optical sorters and robots.
Closed Loop Partners, based in New York City, looked at Balcones because it not only has a great reputation and possible regional expansion opportunities, but also because Balcones doesn’t own a landfill. This means they have an increased incentive to make sure all materials it receives are recycled.
Balcones is looking at growth opportunities in the Texas areas of Dallas-Fort Worth and Houston, plus the southeastern U.S. and in the Midwest. Let’s wish them good luck in their hunting.
Enough about them, let’s switch to another area and topic; like the nation’s capitol and contamination in recycled materials.
A personal note, when I was in charge of Texas State University’s recycling program, I found the more enthusiastic a citizen was about recycling, the more likely they were to put contaminated items in the recycling bin. They felt everything should be recyclable, one way or another.
Recently the Washington, D.C. Department of Public Works targeted contaminants through an education effort as part of a “Feet on the Street” campaign. One of the ways they will do this is for crews to place “Oops” tags on residential bins that contain materials that aren’t allowed in their program.
Primarily focusing on bags and wraps, this effort will run through America Recycles Day, which is Nov. 15. It is based on the Recycling Partnership’s “Feet on the Street” work in Atlanta, Chicago and Denver. A small test of it last year in D.C reduced contamination in a targeted route by 20%.
Nobody really likes to hear an "Oops" where they’re concerned, so till next week, do have a great one with no "Oops."
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Ollie is a local citizen concerned with the environment and helping others. A retired Air Force fighter and instructor pilot, he is a graduate of Leadership San Marcos and received his degrees at Texas State University where he worked on staff before totally retiring. For questions or comments, he invites you to call him at 512-353-7432. or email omaier@txstate.edu.
