Municipal Recycling

DLJ Merchant Banking Partners, a private equity investment affiliate of Credit Suisse, has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Deffenbaugh Industries Inc., a waste management and recycling firm headquartered in Shawnee, Kan. At press time, the deal was expected to close by the end of 2007.

Deffenbaugh, which services companies in the Midwest, provides collection, transportation and disposal of commercial and residential waste. The company has approximately 450,000 customers and its operations are focused primarily in Nebraska, Kansas, Missouri and Iowa. The company also operates a large recycling facility as well as rock quarrying operations.

Deffenbaugh’s veteran senior management team will continue to lead the company.

"What the deal means for Deffenbaugh is that we have a new owner and more capital," Tom Coffman, a spokesman for Deffenbaugh, says. "There is a potential to expand geographically."

With the new ownership, Coffman says the company could add services, improve routing and boost its marketing abilities.

Steven Rattner, global head of DLJ Merchant Banking Partners, says, "We are pleased to add one of the premier operators in the $52 billion waste management industry to DLJ’s portfolio."

The acquisition is not the first for DLJ in the waste management/recycling industry. Several years ago DLJ acquired Wastequip, a manufacturer of recycling and waste management equipment.

Oregonians are generating waste at record-high levels, according to figures released by the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) in its 15th annual survey of garbage haulers, private recycling and composting companies in the state.

DEQ’s Solid Waste Program, which helps Oregonians reduce and properly manage their waste, produces the "Oregon Material Recovery and Waste Generation Rates Report" each year to provide an updated look at how the state is faring in terms of waste generation and material recovery through recycling, composting and energy recovery.

For 2006, the state’s waste generation reached 5.75 million tons. For the past two years, Oregon has failed to meet statewide goals calling for no increase in waste generation. From 2005 to 2006, total waste generation increased 3.9 percent.

Meanwhile, the state posted a 47.5 percent recovery rate, down from 2005’s 49.1 percent and short of the 2009 goal of 50 percent. The amount of material recovered increased slightly in 2006, but the amount of waste generated increased even more.

Nearly 369,300 tons of metal were recovered in the state in 2006, a decline of 27 percent from 2005.

The complete "2006 Oregon Material Recovery and Waste Generation Rates Report" is available at www.deq.state.or.us/lq/pubs/docs/sw/2006MRWGRatesReport.pdf.

Macon Iron & Paper Stock Co. and SP Recycling Corp. have announced a new single-stream recycling program for the middle-Georgia area.

Evan Koplin of Macon Iron says that while the company has been processing recyclables from throughout the middle Georgia area for many years, this will be the company’s first foray into single-stream processing of municipally collected recyclables.

Macon Iron recently landed a large industrial account and will be installing a sorting center to accommodate the contract. Until the facility is complete the company will be shipping the recyclables to SP Recycling.

The Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (MassDEP) has awarded approximately $494,000 in recycling grants that provide either direct funds ($365,300) or in-kind technical assistance ($128,500) to 76 communities.

The in-kind assistance grants, through which a municipality receives a number of hours from a MassDEP regional municipal assistance coordinator, target a specific recycling or waste reduction program for implementation in dozens of communities.

"By targeting specific programs, these grants encourage communities to develop local solutions and then seek assistance from the state to help bring those ideas to fruition," MassDEP Commissioner Laurie Burt says. "MassDEP’s review of these applications shows that there are many creative ideas percolating are out there locally, and there are also several instances of regional cooperation that warrant our support."

Among the projects in which MassDEP will be providing in-kind technical assistance are a recycling plan for schools in Medford; coordination of regional recycling collection services for six Merrimack Valley communities; and planning and evaluation for pay-as-you-throw programs in 16 communities.

The disbursal for this round of direct funding will take place throughout the remaining months of fiscal year 2008 ($215,300) and then, subject to funding, the remainder ($150,000) will be disbursed in fiscal year 2009.

A full list of grant recipients is available at www.RecyclingToday.com/news/images/massdeplist.doc.