Krause Manufacturing of Bellingham, Wash., established in 1963, celebrates its 50th year of business this year. Krause manufactures heavy duty recycling systems for construction and demolition, municipal solid waste and front-end system solutions for waste conversion technologies, as well as single-stream and electronic waste systems.

“As a long-time Krause employee of 24 years, I'm proud to say that after 50 years, Krause is still operating under the same principles that the company was founded on—We keep the customer's needs in the forefront, operating with integrity and providing the best value for the dollar are at the center of every project we take on,” says Jay Edmonds, Krause manufacturing sales engineer.

Krause built its reputation of manufacturing heavy duty equipment starting off as a manufacturer of custom agricultural equipment. Krause began serving the recycling industry in 1985 and entered the C&D market in the mid- 1990s. “Company founder Herb Krause’s philosophy was if you could build a machine that a farmer couldn’t tear apart, you did well,” says Jay Edmonds.

“Over the years, Krause has always been known for building the ‘stoutest’ equipment in the industry and for providing outstanding customer service,” says Stanley Girard, COO, Far West Fibers Inc. “It may sound cliché but working with them felt like you were working with family. Herb and his staff always made you feel like nothing else matter to them but the job they were doing for you”

Mike Whitney, Krause vice president and general manager says, “The company’s history in farming equipment made the transition to manufacturing recycling equipment smooth. The industry demands strong standards of its equipment, and Krause was there to answer the need. Over 25 years later, much of the equipment produced is still up and running today.”

Krause joined the CP Group team in 2004 as a way for the CP Group to offer a broader solution to its customers and to better serve the needs of the C&D market.

By joining the CP Team, Krause expanded its own decades of experience in equipment design and engineering by drawing on the experience and ability of CP, which has been an industry pioneer in separation technology for the recycling industry since its incorporation in 1977.

For more information on Krause’s history, visit www.krausemanufacturing.com/company/history.
 

Veolia Environmental Services North America, based in Chicago, has announced that its Port Washington, Wis., facility has achieved approved processor status for the Ontario Ministry of the Environment’s Take Back the Light program. The approval will allow the company’s Wisconsin facility to recycle fluorescent and other mercury-bearing lamps that are subject to the program’s operational and environmental requirements.

The program, launched in June 2008, is Canada’s first comprehensive fluorescent lamp recycling program. The program’s goal is to recycle fluorescent lamps, while facilitating proper collection and management of lamps to recover potentially hazardous mercury and other lamp materials. While the recovery of mercury is the primary objective of the program, glass, metals and phosphor are also reclaimed and recycled.

“Proper handling of fluorescent and other mercury-bearing lamps is extremely important to Veolia and our customers,” says John McShane, Veolia’s electronics recycling division GM. “Being an approved processor for Take Back the Light provides the public and our customers the assurance they need to know that their spent lamps will be handled properly.”

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has ordered Century Aluminum of West Virginia to develop an updated cleanup plan for a former industrial facility in Ravenswood, W.Va., which was used for the storage and disposal of hazardous materials that were byproducts of aluminum production.

EPA is currently overseeing cleanup activities at the site. Cleanup work at the site includes the restoration of contaminated groundwater to drinking water standards and to control human and environmental exposure to hazardous wastes in the soil that remain in place at the plant.

Under the EPA order, Century Aluminum must develop a plan that identifies specific locations at the plant where contaminants remain, and put in place procedures and safeguards for any future construction or excavation in those areas.

Further, the plan must be approved by EPA and the West Virginia Department of the Environmental Protection. The plan must include a health and safety section for the safety of workers and contractors doing excavation or construction work in these known contaminated areas.

The order also restricts using groundwater beneath the property for drinking water. Using the property for any purpose other than industrial is prohibited unless it is demonstrated that there is no threat to human health or the environment.

Aluminum production began at the site in 1957 when Kaiser Aluminum and Chemical Corp. began operations. The facility included a plant that produced aluminum from alumina ore, and a plant that produced plate and coil aluminum alloy. The former Kaiser plant was sold in 1989 to Ravenswood Aluminum Corp., which changed its name to Century Aluminum of West Virginia.

In 1999, Century Aluminum sold 500 acres of the facility to Pechiney Rolled Products, but Century Aluminum retained the plant that produces aluminum, which covered about 350 acres. In February 2009, Century Aluminum shut down the aluminum production operation due to the low demand for aluminum.
 

The venture capital firm Brookfield Asset Management Inc. has reached an agreement to sell its Longview Timber and Longview Fibre Paper and Packaging in two separate transactions. Combined, the sales are expected to generate about $3.675 billion for Brookfield.

Under terms of the first agreement, Brookfield will sell Longview Timber, which consists of about 645,000 acres of timberlands in the Pacific Northwest, to Weyerhaeuser for $2.65 billion including the assumption of debt.

Reid Carter, managing partner of Brookfield Timberlands, says, “Although we are selling our Longview timber assets, we believe that timberland investments provide significant benefits to institutional investment portfolios and have a strong long-term potential for growth. Going forward, we will continue to pursue new timberland investment opportunities through our private fund initiatives with institutional investment partners.”

Brookfield also agreed to sell its Longview Fibre Paper and Packaging assets to KapStone Paper and Packaging for $1.025 billion. Longview Fibre Paper and Packaging operates an integrated paper mill in Longview, Wash., and seven container plants in the Pacific Northwest. Longview Fibre Paper and Packaging produces kraft paper, containerboard and corrugated boxes.

“We acquired these timberlands and manufacturing assets as one business in 2007 and restructured the business, separating the manufacturing business from the timberlands and engaging in an operational turnaround of the manufacturing business by our private equity fund. While the timing of the sale transactions is coincidental, for investors in our funds these transactions represent monetization at excellent returns and puts each of these assets into the hands of strategic buyers who will be able to take them to the next level,” says Cyrus Madon, senior managing partner in Brookfield’s Private Equity Group.