Waste Management Inc. to Develop Organic Waste Facility in Florida

19 January 2011 A new organic waste treatment facility located in Okeechobee, Florida is being developed by Waste Management, Inc. The facility will process yard, food and clean wood waste to create value added soil amendments as well as bagged lawn and garden products. Located adjacent to Waste Management's existing Okeechobee Landfill operation, the facility, is the company's first dedicated organics composting site in Florida. According to the company the eight acre site will offer organics recycling services to the South Florida region with operations expected to begin in the spring of 2011. Waste Management says that the Okeechobee facility is part of its expansion in organics recycling solutions, and key to developing new, value-added end markets for organic materials and accelerating the growth of organics recycling across North America. The market for composting services is growing as consumers are increasingly demanding alternatives to conventional fertilizers for lawn and garden care, companies and municipalities are seeking to increase the recycling of organic materials for beneficial use. Tim Hawkins, market area vice president for Waste Management said: "We want to extract the highest value possible from the materials we manage. Recycling organics through composting and other technologies that may produce energy, transportation fuels or specialty chemicals enables us to generate more value from this specific material stream." North America generates over 80 million tons (72.6 million tonnes) of organic waste each year. In the United States, approximately a third of MSW is organic, including food, yard and wood waste. Approximately 65% of yard waste and 2.5% of food waste collected in the U.S. is currently diverted from disposal. Organic compost is considered a part of the green retail market, which has been growing at 20% annually. "With this facility, we will be able to offer southern Florida customers dedicated organics processing capability as well as generate beneficially useful products such as nutrient-rich organic compost that can