Pure Earth, Inc.

Waste not, want not┬áJust three years after its launch, Pure Earth, Inc. is establishing a strong position in the recycling sector. CEO and founder Mark Alsentzer talks to Gay Sutton about introducing new technologies that can manufacture fuel from everyday waste.  There is often an element of luck involved with being in the right place at the right time, but when a business is launched at the beginning of a new trend and then develops to occupy the market space, then itÔÇÖs fair to say that success is due to sound judgment, market knowledge, skill, and above all, a clear vision.Pure Earth, Inc. (PEI) is a small, publicly traded environmental services company that was formed just three years ago by entrepreneur Mark Alsentzer, an engineer by trade who had already built two environmental services companies from scratch and sold them. However, PEI is an evolutionary step forward from his previous businesses. While waiting for the non-compete period to expire, Alsentzer observed the changes in public environmental awareness. He examined some of the recycling technologies and concepts being used in other parts of the world. ÔÇ£I felt the time was right to create a company in the USÔÇöa regional company for nowÔÇöthat focuses on recovering and reclaiming waste materials and recycling them into valuable new resources.ÔÇØHe began by acquiring a nucleus of companies already operating in the field, consolidating and integrating them to form the core of Pure Earth. ÔÇ£These ongoing operations gave me a beachhead to get started,ÔÇØ he says. Armed with a core capability in transportation and disposal, trucking, environmental engineering, brownfield development and rock crushing, he began developing the companies strongly into the recycling arena. ÔÇ£PE Transportation and Disposal, for example, originally removed contaminated soil from clientsÔÇÖ sites but paid somebody else to dispose of the waste,ÔÇØ Alsentzer recalls. ÔÇ£We looked at that and decided to recycle and reuse that waste at our own facilities. So weÔÇÖve internalized and captured that product stream and are now able to make a profit from what had previously been a cost.ÔÇØ The rock crushing business, meanwhile, had only been operating a few years before PEI acquired it, and Alsentzer hopes to develop it into a highly effective division of the business, taking rock materials that have been slightly contaminated, crushing them and making rock products that can be sold back to the construction industry rather than dumped.A month or two after the inception of Pure Earth, Inc., the company started to expand its brownfield development business, beginning with an agreement to reclaim a quarry in PennsylvaniaÔÇöa state that has been heavily exploited for coal and stone and is riddled with abandoned mines and quarries. This was quickly followed by the acquisition of an engineering and design company in Connecticut specializing in brownfield redevelopment, which led to the purchase of PEIÔÇÖs first brownfield siteÔÇöa 24-acre abandoned industrial site to be cleaned up, recycled and top-filled, and ultimately made fit for development.┬á ÔÇ£At the start of the business we were heavily reliant on the construction and development industry,ÔÇØ Alsentzer says, ÔÇ£and I knew that construction boom could not continue. I didnÔÇÖt think it would come to a halt as quickly as it did, but our plan was to diversify into markets that would generate waste on a continual basis rather than in single events like the cleanup of a contaminated property.ÔÇØOne of the strong business opportunities the company had identified was the recycling of refinery waste, which could then be sold back into the industry. In March 2007 PEI acquired a group of companies in New Jersey that gave it the capability to treat and recycle refinery waste, hazardous waste and utility waste. But itÔÇÖs in recycling materials such as utility waste and converting them into fuel that Alsentzer sees the greatest potential.┬á The company takes sewer sludgeÔÇöproduced every day but usually sent to landfillsÔÇöremoves the water and transforms it into a highly effective fuel that can be sold to energy users. Converting sludge into a fuel has two clear environmental benefits: it reduces the amount of waste sent to landfill sites, and it cuts the amount of CO2 released into the atmosphere by the burning of fossil fuel. And for the utility company the benefits are just as clear: PEI can remove the sludge for significantly less than the cost of sending it to a landfill. ÔÇ£WeÔÇÖve been working on this process,ÔÇØ Alsentzer says, ÔÇ£and I believe over the next five years weÔÇÖll be able go around the country and install perhaps two or three of these facilities a year.ÔÇØ┬á Perhaps the most exciting recent new development takes the principle of manufacturing fuel from waste a step further. ÔÇ£This is more of a startup operation and is still in its infancy,ÔÇØ Alsentzer explains. ÔÇ£Most of the cement kilns in Europe burn engineered fuel rather than fossil fuel, and weÔÇÖre bringing that technology to the US.ÔÇØ┬á The company has one facility under construction close to a cement kiln in Florida. The plant will take light industrial or construction waste such as paper, plastic and cardboard, then dry it, shred it and turn it into a material with high energy value for use as a fuel in the cement kiln. The environmental benefits are enormous. Kilns are huge energy users and emit large quantities of CO2 when burning fossil fuels. These recycled fuels, by contrast, are largely carbon neutral, cutting harmful emissions at a stroke.ÔÇ£I think that as a nation weÔÇÖve learned our lesson this time: we canÔÇÖt rely on fossil fuels as a source of energy in the future,ÔÇØ Alsentzer says. ÔÇ£WeÔÇÖre hoping to get this first production facility up and running this year, and then itÔÇÖs just a matter of ÔÇÿcookie cutteringÔÇÖ them and constructing two or three a year. We could ultimately have 20 or 30 around the country.ÔÇØThe latest piece to be added to the Pure Earth jigsaw came with the acquisition last year of Nycon, which manufactures fibers for the cement industry to reduce cracking and in some cases to enhance the structural characteristics of the cement. The company had been developing a method of recycling carpet for this purpose, and PE has launched the new recycled product and patented it.┬á The task now is to communicate this vision: to educate industrialists, politicians and the public that these recycled products are as reliable and effective as the primary raw materials but are cheaper to use and less damaging to the environment. ÔÇ£People have no idea, for example, that sewer sludge can be converted to a fuel. So we spend a lot of time educating people, speaking at seminars and meetings.ÔÇØ┬á With the cost of fossil fuel likely to rise again in the long term and the new administration developing policies to reduce the national carbon footprint, Pure Earth has clearly established an enviable long-term position.  ÔÇô Editorial research by Tim Conlon┬á