Zero
landfill.
Auditing us? Say so in the message and we will route it to the person who keeps the vendor ledger.
No process material from this plant has gone to a landfill since 2014. Every bottle, cage, pallet and separated wash fraction has an identified outlet. The claim is verified by an absence — there are no disposal invoices in our accounts payable — which is a harder test to fake than any positive assertion, and we will open the ledger to anyone assessing us.
What the pledge covers
All process material: incoming containers and every fraction we separate from them — HDPE bottles, galvanised cages, steel and composite and timber pallets, valves, caps, gaskets, data plates, strapping and the solid and oil fractions pulled out of the wash loop.
It does not cover break-room waste, office packaging or construction debris from building work. Those are municipal collection, like anyone else's, and a pledge that quietly included them by implication would be dishonest.
Every outlet, named
| Material | Outlet |
|---|---|
| HDPE bottles, unsalvageable | Granulated, flake-washed, pelletised → pipe, pallets, non-food containers |
| Galvanised cages | Baled → galvanised steel scrap market |
| Steel pallet bases | Baled → steel scrap market |
| Composite pallet bases | Separated: steel to scrap, deck to regrind |
| Timber pallets | Ground → landscape mulch and boiler fuel |
| Strapping and film | Baled → mixed plastics reprocessor |
| Wash-loop solids | Dewatered → energy recovery |
| Wash-loop oil fraction | Separated → used-oil reclaimer |
| Spent caustic | Neutralised → permitted discharge |
| Valves and gaskets | Stockpiled pending an outlet — unresolved |
The honest gap
Valves and gaskets. Under half a pound per unit, a mixed assembly of polypropylene, EPDM and sometimes a metal insert, and no reprocessor will take them in our volumes. We stockpile them — about four tons currently — rather than bury them, and we are looking for an outlet. It is the one part of this page that is a problem rather than an achievement, and rounding it away would make everything else on the page less believable.
The four scenarios that would break it
- An undeclared hazardous inbound. Response: quarantine, identify, return to shipper at their cost, or transfer to a permitted TSDF. Never bury.
- Regulatory loss of an outlet. Response: stop accepting the affected material until a compliant outlet exists.
- Loss of the regrind buyer. Response: stockpile and reduce intake. We hold roughly nine weeks of bunker capacity for exactly this.
- Wash-separator contamination event. Response: isolate, treat through a permitted contractor, suspend the line.
In all four, the first move is to stop taking material rather than to start burying it. That is the actual content of the pledge — not a number, a decision rule.
What we ask of sellers
The pledge only works if what arrives is what was declared. Drain containers fully, close and cap the valve, and tell us the truth about prior contents. An honestly declared unpleasant chemical is a technical-grade or scrap unit, which is fine. A mis-declared one is a load we have to return, and it is the single most likely thing to put a hole in this record. The buyback terms set this out.
Verification
- Test
- Absence of disposal invoices in AP
- Period
- 2014 to present
- Reviewed by
- External accountants, annually
- Open to
- Any customer assessing us
- Also available
- Outlet contracts, per material stream
Not claimed
- Carbon neutrality — we burn gas and diesel
- Zero waste in the certified-standard sense
- Third-party assurance to ISO 14001
- Coverage of office or construction waste
- A solution for valves and gaskets
Pledge questions
How can a pledge be verified by an absence?
Because landfill costs money and leaves a paper trail. If we sent material to a landfill there would be a disposal invoice, a weight ticket and a hauler contract. Our accounts payable contain none, and that is a materially easier thing for an auditor to confirm than any positive claim about where material went. Ask and we will show you the vendor ledger.
What about general office and facility waste?
The pledge covers process material — containers, bottles, cages, pallets, valves, gaskets and the fractions separated from our wash water. It does not cover break-room waste, packaging from office supplies or construction debris from building work, and we do not pretend it does. Those go to municipal collection like everybody else's.
Is there anything you genuinely cannot place?
Valves and gaskets, at under half a pound per unit. They are a mixed assembly of polypropylene, EPDM and sometimes a metal insert, and no reprocessor will take them in the volumes we generate. We currently stockpile them pending a viable outlet rather than landfill them, and the stockpile is about four tons. That is the one unresolved gap and we would rather name it than round it away.
What would force you to break the pledge?
Four things: an inbound load with an undeclared hazardous content that no permitted facility will take at any price; a regulatory change that prohibits a current outlet; the loss of our regrind buyer with no replacement; or a contamination event in the wash separator. We have a documented response to each, and in every case the first step is to stop accepting the material rather than to start burying it.
Every material stream, and exactly where it goes
| Material | Mass per unit | Processing | Outlet | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| HDPE bottles, unsalvageable | ≈38 lb | Granulate, flake wash, dry, pelletise | Pipe, pallets, agricultural sheet, non-food containers | Contracted |
| Galvanised cages | ≈48 lb | Stripped, baled separately | Galvanised steel scrap market | Contracted |
| Steel pallet bases | ≈32 lb | Separated at disassembly, baled clean | Steel scrap market | Contracted |
| Composite pallet bases | ≈24 lb | Split: frame to scrap, deck to regrind | Two streams | Contracted |
| Timber pallet bases | ≈24 lb | Ground | Landscape mulch and boiler fuel | Contracted |
| Strapping and film | <1 lb | Baled | Mixed plastics reprocessor | Contracted |
| Wash-loop solids | Variable | Dewatered | Energy recovery | Contracted |
| Wash-loop oil fraction | Variable | Separated and skimmed | Used-oil reclaimer | Contracted |
| Spent caustic | Variable | Neutralised | Permitted discharge | Permitted |
| Data plates and labels | <0.1 lb | Separated with the cage | Steel scrap | Contracted |
| Valves and gaskets | ≈0.4 lb | None viable at our volume | Stockpiled — about four tons | UNRESOLVED |
Four approaches tried, one still open
| Approach | Outcome | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Mixed plastics reprocessor | Declined | Metal contamination and unknown prior contents |
| Energy recovery | Declined at our volume | Chlorine risk profile needs characterisation we cannot fund |
| Resale as reclaimed parts | Works for ≈15% | The rest fail seat inspection and we will not sell them |
| Manual disassembly in-house | Costed three times, rejected | ≈90 seconds a valve — about 1.5 FTE for ≈$9,000 a year of output |
| Mechanical shred and sort | Not viable | Minimum economic throughput is roughly twenty times ours |
| Regional aggregation with other yards | Two conversations, no agreement | Our best current hope |
| Manufacturer take-back | None found | No programme exists that we have been able to locate |
It is not technically hard. It is a scale mismatch: somebody processing valves from the whole region could do it economically, and one yard in St. Louis cannot. Roughly fifteen tons a year passes through, of which we place about 15% as reclaimed parts and stockpile the rest.
What would fix it
- Regional aggregation. Four or five Midwest reclaim yards pooling their valve streams would justify a sorting line. If you run a yard and want to talk, write to us.
- Design change upstream. A valve designed for disassembly — captured rather than bonded seal, single polymer family — makes this trivial. That is a conversation with manufacturers.
- A manufacturer take-back programme. None exists that we have found.
What the pledge actually is
Not a number. A decision rule: when a stream has no outlet, we stop accepting the material or we store it. We do not bury it.
| Scenario | Response | First action |
|---|---|---|
| An inbound load with undeclared hazardous content | Quarantine, identify, return to shipper at their cost, or transfer to a permitted TSDF | Stop unloading |
| Regulatory loss of an outlet | Stop accepting the affected material until a compliant outlet exists | Stop accepting |
| Loss of the regrind buyer | Stockpile and reduce intake — we hold about nine weeks of bunker capacity for exactly this | Reduce intake |
| Wash-separator contamination event | Isolate, treat through a permitted contractor, suspend the line | Suspend the line |
In all four, the first move is to stop taking material rather than to start burying it. That decision rule is the actual content of the pledge.
What the pledge does not cover
Break-room waste, office packaging and construction debris from building work. Those go to municipal collection like anybody else's, and a pledge that quietly included them by implication would be dishonest.
Detailed questions
How can a pledge be verified by an absence?
Because landfill costs money and leaves a paper trail. If we sent material to a landfill there would be a disposal invoice, a weight ticket and a hauler contract. Our accounts payable contain none, and that is materially easier for an auditor to confirm than any positive claim. Ask and we will show you the vendor ledger.
What about the four tons of valves?
Stockpiled in bay three, growing by roughly a ton a year net of the 15% we resell as reclaimed parts. It is a deferral and not a solution, and at some point either an outlet appears or the pile becomes genuinely inconvenient. We would rather be honest about that than round it out of the reporting.
Is this certified to a zero-waste standard?
No. We are not certified to TRUE, UL 2799 or any comparable standard, and we do not claim to be. Those standards have their own definitions and thresholds; ours is a plainly stated decision rule plus an auditable ledger.
Do you issue a certificate of destruction?
Yes, on request, recording serial numbers, the date, the disassembly and the material destinations. This is a routine request from pharmaceutical and consumer-brand customers who need to document that branded or regulated containers were genuinely destroyed rather than resold.
What is the hardest material to place, after valves?
Latex paint and adhesive residues on bottles that cannot be washed clean. They go to regrind, but the resin carries a quality penalty and some buyers will not take it. We segregate those loads and sell them at a discount rather than mixing them into clean post-industrial pellet.
Would you break the pledge to keep a customer?
No, and the realistic version of that question is whether we would accept a load we should refuse. We have returned loads at the shipper's expense for mis-declared contents and lost the account. A mis-declared chemical is the single most likely thing to put a hole in this record, which is why the buyback terms are explicit about honest declaration.
Does zero landfill mean zero environmental impact?
No, and conflating the two is exactly the kind of claim this page exists to avoid. We run forklifts, a boiler and trucks. We avoid considerably more than we emit. Nothing we send anywhere is free of consequence — regrind pelletising uses energy, steel re-melting uses energy, and mulch eventually decomposes.
Assessing our claims?
Ask for the vendor ledger and the outlet contracts. We would rather be checked than believed.