;
WASTE NOT
Almond byproducts keep Blue Diamond
running at peak performance
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P 05763
JanCooper
he 1990s are being touted as the "decadeof the
earth."Califomia lawmakers are taking notice
and will probably,once again,
lead the nation in environmental
policy by instituting mandatory
recycling programs aimed at
reducing America's solid waste
stream.
Assembly Bill 939 requires that
everycounty in Califomia divert
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AGRICULTURAL ENGINEERING I MAY 1992
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25 percent of its waste away from
landfills by 1995. By 2000, 50 per-
cent of all waste must be diverted.
Many
counties,
especially
Sacramento County, are looking to
big business to help accomplish
these goals.
Blue Diamond is ranked at the top
of the list, along with Tower Records,
as one of the Northern California
companies most efficiently handling
its waste products. One of the most
recognizable ways Blue Diamond
recycles is by burning its almond
shells at the cogeneration plant to
produce steam to run its processing
facilities in Sacramento and to produce electricity for sale to Pacific Gas
and Electric.
Broken pallets are also used as
fuel at the cogeneration plant. In
fact, all byproducts of almonds are
used in one form or another. Almond
hulls and skins (collected during the
blanching process) are sold as cattle
feed. The market currently yields
about $55 to $60 a ton for the hulls.
Inedible almonds are sold to an
oil processing company and pressed
for oil, which is then used as cooking
oil in the Blue Diamond plant and
also sold in retail outlets. Of its many
recycling programs, oil stock recycling is currently the most profitable
for Blue Diamond. The used roasting
oil from the processing plants is sold
for use as a leather belt treatment.
Of the 65,000 to 70,000 tons of
fuel fed into the cogeneration plant
each year, 99 percent of the ash is
recovered and sold as a fertilizer for
alfalfa. Almond shell dust is sold for
use in the processing of sugar beets.
r
“No waste” program
Many of the byproducts discussed
above are not sold for a profit, but
they are all hauled away at no
expense to the company, so this “no
waste” program does save the cooperative money. The companies
obtaining these byproducts pay all of
the shipping and freight costs. Blue
Diamond is thus able to avert disposal expenses while still achieving its
goal of diverting waste from landfills.
”Blue Diamond is in-house efficient,” says Rick Allamon, national
account manager for Waste
Management of North America.
Cutting down the amount of solid
waste leaving Blue Diamonds plant
is important both for the company’s
profitability and for the good of the
AGRICULTURAL ENGINEERING I MAY 1992
environment. Waste Management
was retained by Blue Diamond to
help bring the company into full
compliance with Assembly Bill 939.
Allamon says Blue Diamond had
a good recycling program before he
even stepped through the door. “The
company has a very impressive track
record already. They had a computer
paper recycling program in place,
they were recycling all of their metals
and they’ve been baling corrugated
cardboard for 10 to 15 years now,”
Allamon says. “The company is very
environmentally aware. We are just
enhancing the existing program and
doing some things that they didn’t
think were feasible.”
Blue Diamond‘s purchasing manager, Dick Wetmore, says, “The programs we have already implemented
will put us way ahead of the state’s
requirements for 1995, and almost
into full compliance for 2000. Employees have been recycling here for
a long time, but we are going to have
to do even more. It’s just going to
take some extra thought from all of
us when we start to throw something
away.”
In addition to updating its existing
trash compactor, which has been on
the premises for 15 years, Blue
Diamond is in the process of purchasing another modern, more efficient one. The cost is about $30,000,
including labor and installation.
Wetmore estimates a payback within
five to six months and an overall cost
savings of $45,000 the first year.
The new compactor has a 4-to-1
compaction ratio. This effective
method of handling will allow the
company to significantly reduce its
refuse collection costs. “Not only is
the cost significantly lower, but we
are also reducing our volume of
waste,” Wetmore says. “The biggest
benefit is a better world for all of us.”
Cost-saving services
With 69,000 employees worldwide, Waste Management Inc. is the
No. 1 environmental services company in the world. The company’s operations run the gamut from recycling
and landfill management to asbestos
abatement and waste-water treatment plants around the globe.
In addition, the company’s chemical waste management unit specializes in handling chemical waste and
conducting hazardous waste reduction studies for many companies. It
also has an environmental engineering department that looks for uses for
waste products to close the recycling
loop.
“Everyone at Blue Diamond is
going to have to be involved in this
program if i t is going to work,”
Allamon says. “Management is going
to have to spend some time educating employees. I have to make up for
that time with more efficient disposal
and handling of the company’s waste
stream. My goal is to not only keep
the costs down, but hopefully save
some money, too.”
Waste Management pays Blue
Diamond per pound for its recyclable
waste to help offset the cost of
administering the program. Waste
Management then takes the material
and sells it to processors, or they
handle it themselves. Allamon stresses that it is then up to all of us to
purchase recycled products to “close
the loop.”
Waste Management believes that
the best way to achieve its goal at
Blue Diamond is to make recycling
a s convenient a s possible for
employees. Special recycling bins
will be placed next to existing trash
containers throughout the plant.
Each bin will be designated as to
what is to go into it - whether it’s
metal, wood, shells, etc. Recycling
trays will be placed at each work station in the office. Employees will be
provided with instructions as to what
kinds of paper can be recycled.
Eventually, Waste Management
will phase in packaging waste recycling. At this time, composite cans
are not recyclable. However, the aluminum from the top and bottom of
the cans is being diverted with other
metal wastes.
Just as Blue Diamond is a leader
in opening almond markets, Waste
Management is dedicated to finding
uses for waste products that aren’t
currently being recycled. The company has also funded facilities to manufacture recycled materials. “We
have done this to help ensure ourselves an end market for the materials we divert,” Allamon says. With
the American population generating
11.4 billion tons of garbage each
year, Waste Management has its
work cut out for it.
Jan Cooper [s editor of Blue Diamond
News, Blue Diamond Growers, 1802 C Street.
Sacramento, CA 95814: (916) 442-0771.
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