Covanta Seeks Permission to Extract Metals from Ash

Recycler expects to cull some 5,000 tons of ferrous and nonferrous scrap per year from the ash delivered to a Massachusetts landfill.

Covanta LLC, Morristown, N.J., has applied for permits to install equipment that will allow the company to extract metals from ash delivered to a landfill owned by the city of Springfield, Mass. The landfill is located in Agawam, Mass.

Ken Ryan, business manager of Covanta’s Agawam facility, says the company hopes to extract between 3,000 and 4,000 tons of ferrous scrap per year as well as 1,250 tons of nonferrous metals per year through the use of magnets, eddy current separators and other equipment.

Covanta, which is affiliated with Covanta Energy Corp., operates the Pioneer Valley Resource Recovery facility, which runs the waste-to-energy facility delivering the ash to the landfill. If approved, the project would extract metals from ash residue that is being shipped to the landfill from Covanta’s facility in Wallingford, Conn., and its Pittsfield, Mass., Resource Recovery facility.


The company will ship the collected metals to Sims Metals Management, with which Covanta presently has a contract .

Covanta has applied for a special use permit from the Agawam Board of Appeals, which is expected to take up the application at its Jan. 23 meeting. Once the company obtains the local permit it will seek to receive a permit from the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection, Ryan says.

According to Ryan, if everything goes according to plan the company will begin construction on the project by this spring with operations taking place by the summer of 2012.
 

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