Startup wants to reclaim recyclables from landfills

Most people are familiar with the three “Rs”—reduce, reuse and recycle. But Quad R Materials, Statesville, North Carolina, is introducing a fourth: reclamation.

Quad R Materials was formed in 2023 by CEO Ray Hoffman, Chief Marketing Officer Subodh Das and Business Development Advisor Michael Pambiachi to address the recyclables, such as aluminum used beverage cans (UBCs), that have been lost to landfills, consuming valuable airspace and wasting natural resources. Reclaiming these recyclables from landfills can save valuable airspace for municipal and private entities while also contributing to the circular economy.

Recycling Today Media Group connected with Das, Hoffman and Pambiachi to learn more about what they hope to accomplish through Quad R Materials. They provided written responses to the questions posed, which have been edited for clarity and conciseness:

Q: Tell me more about your new venture, the factors contributing to its founding and the leadership team behind it. 

A: We formed Quad R Materials to recover materials with value already disposed of in the landfill or capture these materials just before disposal. Landfills are difficult to permit, and new greenfield sites are nearly impossible due to various environmental regulations and environmental awareness concerns. Permitting and constructing new landfill space was becoming more challenging with many of the Subtitle D landfills that were sited during the early to mid-1990s reaching their initial design footprints and capacities. Having watched many thousands of tons being disposed of, it was easy to identify materials coming out of the boxes or off the back of the trucks that contained materials that still had value but were being disposed of, covered with soil, and capped, forever lost to the circular economy. 

The solid waste industry has a monumental job of collecting all of the residential waste placed curbside or in boxes at various commercial and industrial facilities, transporting it to transfer stations or to local or regional landfills, unloading it and getting back to the route as quickly as possible to collect more. The process has no time or resources built into it for recovering materials—collecting, transporting [and] disposing on repeat. Recycling exists but also suffers from insufficient infrastructure. 

In the case of aluminum, especially UBCs, there is a supply shortage and price increase of this recycled material source due to the low recycling rate, high landfilling rate, two new rolling mills coming online and now the tariffs on imported primary aluminum.

Quad R Materials’ leadership team is made up of industry veterans:

• Raymond Hoffman, P.E., has been a professional engineer focused on solid waste for 20-plus years. He is experienced in designing, permitting, operating and constructing solid waste facilities, including landfills, transfer stations and material recovery facilities.
• Subodh Das, Ph.D., has been active in the aluminum business for the last 50 years, with technical manufacturing and marketing experience at Alcoa and aluminum can sheet-making companies at Tri-Arrows and Logan Aluminum.   
• Bill Kistler has provided site development and construction grading services for most of his career and is well-adapted to heavy equipment operations and maintenance.
• Bruni Hoffman has been actively supporting landfill operations through her company [HNA Contracting LLC], which provides specialized crews with erosion and sediment control installation and general labor support.
• Jackie Palmer is well-versed in banking functions and sales, with a keen ability to promote new technologies to those in financial management roles within the various city/county levels of government.
• Tyler Crawford, Esq., brings his legal background as an attorney to support contract reviews and development for our unique and diverse projects.
• Michael Pambianchi, Ph.D., has been active in industrial material commercialization (led R&D at Corning) and business and strategy developments (Breakthrough Energy Ventures) for decades.

Q: What are the company's goals and objectives? 

A: Goal No. 1 is to show the industry a new way of thinking and processing waste, maximizing recovery rates for materials with value and getting these materials back into the circular economy to preserve landfill space while preserving natural resources through increased recycling rates. Our primary objective is to have our system of processing and recovery located at each of the active landfills and have systems in operation at any of the closed landfills, excavating and processing materials systematically.

Q: Why landfill reclamation? 

A: The valued materials made it past any other attempts for recovery (i.e., curbside recycling/MRFs). This material is sitting there, ready to be reclaimed with no daily time rushes other than being productive and efficient in managing recovery costs. In addition, the reclaimed landfill can remain active longer to receive additional materials.

Q: How much aluminum is potentially available for recovery, and is it largely in the form of UBCs? 

A: The amount of aluminum will vary depending on the state and the level of recycling or recycling infrastructure in place. Taking basic numbers provided by the Aluminum Association/Can Manufacturing Institute, recycling rates have recently dropped from 47 percent to 43 percent, meaning 57 percent of these UBCs are reaching the landfill and could be recovered. 

Q: What are the cost factors that influence such a project? 

A: The equipment to process and sort these materials is expensive to purchase, maintain and operate, however, once set up, the entire process can be operated with very few [people] as one system feeds into the next, creating the various product off-takes.

Q: How would the process work?  

A: Find an interested landfill owner/operator. Obtain permits from the regulatory agencies. Mobilize equipment and set up the operation. Excavate materials or receive “fresh” waste. Shred the material for downstream processing. If material is excavated, a screen will be needed to separate soils and fines from materials to be reclaimed. Additional shredding may be needed to get to the right size for some of metals recovery, both ferrous and nonferrous. Landfills also contain a large percentage of plastics, which can also be recovered and sorted by type or can be turned into a refuse-derived fuel. Sorted materials are then removed from the site and sent to various downstream recyclers for final processing into new materials.

Q: Are you approaching landfill operators? 

A: We are in the early stages of gathering data and lining up additional resources. The interest is there, but most people are skeptical of anything new to the industry. It’s a dirty job with many hazards involved that need to be understood before attempting this work. 

Q: Are active landfills rather than closed landfills more likely to be interested? 

A: The opportunity is going to be good for active and closed sites. An active site that is within five years of closing would greatly benefit by getting “new” airspace back, with already constructed cells in place, no new land to purchase, soils reclaimed for future use and the ability to delay the large costs of closing the site and also delaying the 30-year postclosure period. 

Closed sites could potentially re-open and, if unlined, this process would be able to remediate potential groundwater contamination issues.

Q: What are the benefits to landfill operators? 

A: Reclaimed airspace without having to expand or build new cells. Delaying closure or capping events as well as the 30-year postclosure. 

Q: What are the challenges that must be overcome? 

A: The mindset of the industry has to change from filling up the landfill as quickly as possible, capping it and going into 30 years of postclosure to establishing a new operation, new types of equipment and an ability for additional revenue from the sale of reclaimed materials. 

Hazards associated with this type of work will include landfill gas collection and control issues, liquids management (leachate and stormwater) [and] potential for landfill fires. Experienced landfill engineers/consultants will be critical to avoiding or handling these issues.

Q: How far are we from making landfill reclamation a reality?

A: The state of North Carolina has issued a reclamation permit, and work is ready to begin. Virginia permitted a landfill reclamation project in 2015 and has some regulatory language written for future projects. With more of the large, regional, privately owned landfills having difficulty getting expansions approved, we should start seeing this reclamation process become more of an industry standard. We can see commercial demonstrations in North Carolina within a year and replication in other states within one to three years.

Q: What kind of interest do secondary aluminum producers have in landfill reclamation? 

A: The aluminum can sheet producers have been building up their processing capability to meet the demand for their products. They are very interested in finding new sources for the supply chain. We have engaged with several aluminum can sheet manufacturers. The interest is high, and we are in various stages of negotiations with them. Two of the major producers attended our workshop and commercial live demonstration at a landfill in North Carolina on Nov. 12-14, 2204.

Those interested in learning more about Quad R Materials can reach out to Das at skdas@phinix.net or to sales@quadrmaterials.com.