Resource Recycling Systems is taking the year of 2012 to highlight all of our service sectors and showcase relevant projects, clients, and trends in each area. In correlation with our conference schedule, we focused January on organics management and biomass energy, but as the month comes to a close, we are shifting February’s focus to our business roots in residential recycling. Read the whole story…
It is time to learn about RRS co-founder, Kerry Sandford. Kerry has over 25 years of experience in equipment design, specification, integration, installation and maintenance in both the solid waste and energy fields. He has been designing and specifying recycling facilities since 1981 and has contributed to the design and construction of more than 20 MRFs from Michigan to South Korea. Kerry incorporates his passion for natural resource conservation into his work and lifestyle.
While I didn’t get a chance to speak directly to Kerry, he supplied the following answers. I hope you find them as interesting and insightful as I did.
1. As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?
I did not have a clear vision, but leaned toward engineering type activities.
2. What made you decide to pursue a career in resource management/sustainability? (Why do you work at Resource Recycling Systems?) Read the whole story…
The growing market for green projects and renewable power has increased the demand for biomass energy projects. We excel in developing fuel availability prospects, assessment/feasibility analysis, feedstock plans and the execution of contracts for the delivery of feedstocks whether they are from farms, institutions, commercial or industrial sources.
Below is an example of a feedstock feasibility assessment we conducted for a private client in 2010. This case study provides a brief overview on how we conducted a feedstock and economic assessment to identify the amount of recycled wood feedstock available for a potential biomass energy project.
Read the whole story…
As our world focuses their attention to renewable energy and ways to be more sustainable in our energy production, biomass and biomass energy systems continue to be at the forefront of this discussion. Before you can start evaluating this energy solution, we need to start with defining what we are talking about. What does biomass energy mean? Let’s start with the basics.
Biomass
Biomass is simply organic matter such as plants, agriculture/crop residuals, forest/forestry residuals, urban wood wastes (from construction and demolition), animal manure and the organic components in municipal and industrial wastes. Biomass energy (or biopower as it can be called) is the energy that is produced from these materials as technologies break down the organic components to release stored energy originally captured from the sun. Biomass is an attractive type of energy producing resource as it is renewable, it is much more evenly distributed over the Earth’s surface and the ability to collect this material is more environmentally friendly than most petroleum based fuels.
On January 18th, I had the pleasure of sitting down with Anna Collinson to discuss her passion for recycling and where the field of resource management is heading. Anna is a project consultant and leader of RRS’s Communications and Planning team. She is key to our daily municipal consulting service activities, serving as a principal liaison with essential communities determining client needs and specific project direction. Anna’s has extensive knowledge of environmental policies, education and outreach 
initiatives and she specializes in long-term client projects involving community interface and multiple agency interaction. Anna also leads the communications campaign for the Carton Council’s carton recycling initiative. Read the whole story…
Today let’s meet RRS Project Engineer Aaron Burman. Aaron is a Professional Engineer and head of the technical team at RRS. Aaron brings a bachelors degree from the Colorado School of Mines and a strong passion for renewable energy to his current position. Aaron works with a wide variety of clients including communities, universities and companies to 
develop successful programs to increase diversion and ensure long-term supply of recycled materials. He has expertise ranging from program implementation to large-scale green supply chain studies.
Below are snippets from a conversation Aaron and I had on January 17th. Please enjoy! Read the whole story…
Fitting with our January celebration of Biomass and Organics Management here at RRS, this week also marks the first biomass conference of 2012 – the Pacific West Biomass Conference & Trade Show in San Francisco, CA – where David Stead has been enjoying the breeze and networking with the best of industry professionals at this dynamic event focusing on biomass utilization in California, Oregon, Washington, Idaho and Nevada. From January 16-18, this conference brought in producers, aggregators, growers, municipal leaders, utility executives and providers, investors and policy makers. Read the whole story…
JD Lindeberg enjoying USCC and Austin, TX.
It’s the beginning of the 2012 conference season and RRS is gearing up for one fantastic year. We are pleased to announce that our annual debut will be at the United States Composting Council (USCC) Annual Conference & Tradeshow this week – the USCC is not only a wonderful organization, but one that is near and dear to our hearts. Nicole Chardoul and JD Lindeberg are both long-time members of the USCC and well-known throughout the industry for their dedication and excellence in the composting community.
Nicole Chardoul’s article on “Waste Stream Reduction, Recycling and Cost Savings within Healthcare Facilities” was recently published in the Medical Tourism Magazine on January 17, 2012. The full article is viewable at this link and has been reprinted below.
Hospitals face growing operational challenges as they balance the delivery of excellent health care services with a changing economy, tight regulations and large volumes of waste requiring proper management. Since hospitals pay for waste in three different ways – when they purchase materials, handle these materials and then dispose of these materials – best practices in waste reduction and management are essential to keep operational costs real and manageable. A resource management system can help hospitals effectively implement high-impact yet simple waste reduction best practices while also allowing for the planning and implementation of more complex or expensive initiatives. A resource management system can provide a model and framework for implementation of these best practices that ensures program visibility, waste volume reduction and regulatory compliance. Read the whole story…
To wrap up our final ‘Principal’ profiles , I want to introduce you to Marty Seaman. Marty has over 20 years of experience developing and implementing sustainable recovery programs. In addition to overseeing our communications, business development and planning efforts, Marty is an expert in resource contracting, cooperative problem solving and achieving economic benefits with environmental challenges and opportunities for many of our municipal, university and green supply chain clients.
