How Self-Reliant Cities Use Raw Materials

Recycling and Refurbishing to Reduce Costs and Create Jobs

In Bridgeport, CT a mattress recycling and refurbishing enterprise is starting up in late June. Twenty workers will process 100,000 mattresses and box springs annually. This will reduce transfer station and landfill costs, while making good end products available to consumers at pennies on the dollar compared to new mattresses from formal retail stores. The plant is owned by the Greater Bridgeport Community Development Corporation, which used a $100,000 Community Development Block grant to leverage additional capital.

An array of refurbishing operations in Eugene, OR including mattresses, automobiles, appliances, computers, furniture, sold through 11 outlet stores run by Saint Vincent de Paul of Lane County (SVDP) has helped lower the cost of living in that city by an estimated 3%. SVDP’s total operations employ over 400 workers at living wages plus health insurance. SVDP also manufacturers products made from window glass and fire starters made from old crayons. Since the Great Recession of 2008, SVDP has hired over 100 new workers and raised wages.

In Reading, PA the new administration has hired its own workers at union wage and benefit levels to manage the city’s recycling program. There are 10 new jobs and the city is expecting to save $200,000. Further by controlling its own materials, the city can direct these resources to companies that will locate manufacturing plants in Reading. Reading will be the site of the first US plant that uses recycled high grade paper and recycled cotton to produce stationery, copy paper, envelopes and file folders for local and regional markets. The plant will create 100 jobs at $14 per hour, plus an additional 20 jobs in distribution and warehousing. United Community Services, the city’s workforce development agent will identify, screen and recruit workers. Mayor Vaughn Spencer is introducing additional creative ways to use raw available materials for sustainable economic growth.

Industrial Parks Focused on Recycling and Reuse

In Alachua County, FL, a 40-acre Resource Recovery Park has been created for recycling and composting companies. Similarly, an industrial park for these types of companies is being developed in Austin, TX. Austin just released an extraordinary 321 page master plan for resource recovery that will guide the city to 90% diversion of discarded materials by 2040. The report will save cities seeking to replicate these goals hundreds of thousands of dollars in consulting fees.

Composting and Urban Agriculture Boost Local Economies

In Poughkeepsie, NY, the city is providing four acres to Greenway Environmental Services, a composting company, which will create the foundation for an intensive urban agriculture sector. Urban agriculture is essential for sustainable cities. David Crockett, director of the Office of Sustainability in Chattanooga reports that if just 10% of the food eaten in the city were grown in the city, it would make a $1 billion impact on the local economy.

In Atlanta, urban agriculture is making considerable progress. Bioponica, Inc. has produced two grow facilities at Park Department outdoor centers that grow fish using algae and duckweed as feed, and vegetables from the nutrients in fish excretions. Elemental Impact has established the downtown Zero Waste Zone in segregate their organic waste for composting. This also makes it easier to recycle non-organic discarded materials. Elemental Impact is also working with the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, the busiest in the world, to capture back of the house and concourse organic waste, as well as the plastic packages that are used to deliver food to the facility. Elemental Impact is now working closely with the National Restaurant Association to establish these zones in many US cities.

Also in Atlanta the faith-based organization Charitable Connections and the Fuller Center recently expanded their re-store, the Lifecycle Building Center, which distributes used and new building materials to low-income customers. Charitable Connections has also established a recycled paint enterprise. It has also attracted an electronic scrap recycling company and a textile recycling company to its community.

Selling Recycled Plastics for Profit

In Spikard, MO, Coon Manufacturing, Inc. produces an array of products from recycled HDPE and PP plastics. These are sold to markets across the US. The technology configuration is homegrown and replicable in virtually any city or county in the US.

About the Institute for Local Self-Reliance

The Institute for Local Self-Reliance is available to provide technical assistance to cities and counties interested in replicating these recycling based enterprises that create good jobs, reduce the cost of solid waste management, expand the local tax base and improve the local and global environment.

Neil Seldman is co-founder and president of ILSR, which was founded in 1974 as a community organization in Washington, DC. He directs ILSR’s Waste to Wealth technical assistance program. Seldman is a former manufacturer and university lecturer in political science. He currently serves as advisor to city and county agencies in over 20 locales including Alachua County, FL, Austin, Atlanta, Los Angeles, Reading, PA, Chattanooga and Bridgeport, CT. ILSR and SVDP partner on projects in several US cities and counties.