NORTH MANKATO — Many people may know LJP Zero Waste Solutions as a traditional waste and recycling company that started about 30 years ago. But as the needs for waste disposal, recycling and upcycling evolves, company officials are positioning the business as something very different.
They are changes that 25-year employee Charlie More said keeps the job exciting every day. The operations manager at North Mankato’s site is especially excited about their expansion plans that will turn even more otherwise discarded materials into alternative fuels under the heading of LJP ReFuel.
The origins of this process was the Xcel Energy’s Wilmarth Plant, which since the 1980s has been burning waste from Ramsey and Washington counties. While much of the garbage burned on weekdays has been from there, the weekend belongs to Mankato garbage, said LJP President Kent Harrell.
“So from Friday night to Monday morning, we’re responsible for feeding that burner to make sure that it continuously operates,” Harrell said. “Through the week we’ll divert garbage to that site. We’ll put it through a process where we’ll make (refuse-derived fuel) by sizing it appropriately and removing metal contaminants and other non-processable materials.
“Then that will be used to burn and power the Xcel burner over the weekend. We do approximately 40,000 tons a year of Mankato-area garbage that goes into that plant. That’s how it started,” he said.
But then an unexpected thing happened: Some of the commercial sources were too high in BTU value for them to burn at Wilmarth. Instead of diverting that material to a landfill, which often is pre-consumer packaging and the products themselves, a new process and market were created for the renewable waste energy products.
The alternative fuel is being used to power industrial boilers and cement kilns, which reduces their reliance on fossil fuels such as natural gas and coal. This also reduces carbon emissions, according to LJP materials. By doing so, everything is destroyed, becomes part of the cement product and produces no residual waste material.
“Because (Wilmarth’s) equipment can only tolerate so many BTUs, we were forced, kind of, to find a solution because so many customers demand zero waste solutions,” Harrell said.
About four years ago, LJP signed its first contract with a cement kiln. They take the high-BTU material that is otherwise non-recyclable, put it through a process that combines it with different types of materials, including organic products like wood, and size it for use in the kiln.
“The material becomes part of the cement, so it’s truly a zero waste solution for these customers,” Harrell said. That includes things that would have been landfilled previously.
The newest addition to LJP’s reuse efforts comes from a product de-packaging and liquid solidification building now under construction that will be operating soon.
The timeline has the new facility going online by July 7, Harrell said. Using a building rendering, he said a number of doors and two loading docks will be associated with dumping inside the building and working with the materials.
“So, if you can imagine us taking in, let’s say, four pallets of old shampoo that’s no longer on the market. We’ll take that material, store it on our dock and then we run it through this de-packager,” he said. That equipment is now set up in their truck shop, and they’re experimenting how to make it work best.
The liquid will go into one of three holding tanks and be mixed. If suitable, he said, it will go directly to a digester. After it is solidified in the pits, it will be hauled out. It allows for the disposal of liquids generated, often by their customers.
In essence, the new process will create an after-market use for more materials from their customers brought in to LJP.
“The beauty is, it doesn’t matter which way the market goes for our products,” Moore said. “We have different avenues to reuse it. So, if the market’s great for a customer through this way, we’ll send it that way. It’s a win-win.”
The work at LJP Zero Waste Solutions gets high marks from city government.
“The city of North Mankato supports the LJP project as it creates continued industry diversity in the North Port Industrial Park,” said Mike Fischer, community development director. “Additionally, the project, which involves the de-packaging of food and consumer product liquid waste, converting the packaging to alternative fuel, and solidifying the liquids for disposal, is supported in the City’s Climate Action Plan.”
And as this new process comes online, LJP continues to investigate solutions to problems that are just down the line, Harrell said.
“We’re looking at potentially utilizing our refuel in the production of biodiesel because it could be another avenue for them. We are just in the beginning stages of that or haven’t really marketed that yet. But the cement kilns have done this for a period of time,” he said.
Although not as cost-efficient as taking this material to landfills, Harrell said their customers see the advantage for everyone in finding ways to avoid that eventual end through services provided by LJP.
“Despite what might be in favor from administration to administration, we’re finding our customers are committed to environmental responsibility. They want to do it right,” he said. “We’re not losing customers because maybe that’s too much cost vs. landfilling. We’re finding our customers to be committed to zero-waste solutions.”