Innovative Recycling Solutions To Keep Waste Out of Landfills

Brandon Lapsys explains that Viably’s mission is to keep waste out of landfills. His company has thousands of customers, all working in concert to help with this goal, buying the solutions that his firm offers… be it a composting facility or a turn-key construction and demolition waste recycling plant. There are lots of different waste streams, no silver bullet, but a shared duty to pull valuable commodities out of waste streams and back into circular economies. Viably does this, selling solutions and selling equipment like shredders, windrow turners, separators, digesters, and more… all transforming garbage to materials that generate value and solve real-world problems.

Viably’s work is critical: Our society is running out of landfill space and landfills. In the coming years, we will lose 35% of our landfills… making recycling ever-more important. Ted and Brandon talk about the major waste streams: Organics and food waste, construction and demolition wastes municipal solid waste, and single stream recycling. He explains that “end markets” for recycled products vary geographically. Then there are niche materials like windmill blades, tires, electronic wastes, and old solar panels. Brandon tells a positive story about repurposing windmill blades. One of his customers spent years developing new structural product that is made with a combination of blades and concrete. Viably provided the shredder and the new product avoids landfill costs and uses far less cement, thereby reducing carbon dioxide emissions.

The discussion shifts to how skeptics of recycling sour the big picture. How can we bust through the perception that recyclables are really being landfilled? Brandon explains that sometimes it is true, that in cases there are not the markets for these materials… so recyclables are sometimes sadly landfilled. But he suggests that people need to be a little curious: Visit your local recycling facility; go on a tour. Visit your landfill’s education center. Let’s focus on our youth in elementary schools, teaching them about waste streams and the value of recycling for our communities and global society. Kids need to know why to take the extra care to put things in the right bins.

Ted asks Brandon to waive his magic wand: What are steps you would take to address the waste stream where only a third is recycled? Number one: Keep glass separated as it is “infinitely recyclable.” We need the right deposit schemes to incentivize people to use and recycle more glass, and less plastic. Another key step, start with low-hanging fruit, notes Brandon: Make every city use the same colored bin for different waste streams. Standardize the colors of the bins. Of municipal solid wastes, 30% is green waste and organics. There is a huge need for this waste stream to be treated. It is now regulated in a dozen states… keeping these valuable materials out of landfills, avoiding methane emissions and reducing the gross volumes that our society produces.

The conversation ends with a few case studies that Brandon is most proud of. Viably’s work with Orange County Waste and Recycling in California has been nationally recognized. Viably has helped that partner to understand and implement highly effective composting facilities at the three landfills that it operates. Another highlight is based on the Harp digester technology that Viably has recently acquired: There are 3,500 cattle rendering facilities in America, most of the guts, hides, brains, and bones has gone to landfills. Now with the Harp process, these spoils can be digested to produce bio-fertilizer that the farmers can use to enhance their soil.

Brandon is clear: There is much work to be done. Viably will continue with more of the same, driving deeper in all the markets that it serves with better and better with technologies.It’s all about turning trash into treasures, repurposing, reusing precious and valuable commodities.