Solid Waste Authority of Central Ohio cancels Columbus area recycling facility plans.
Solid Waste Authority of Central Ohio cancels Columbus area recycling facility plans.
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Plans for a recycling sorting facility located Franklin County, Ohio’s landfill have been cancelled, a report from the Columbus Dispatch says.
The Solid Waste Authority of Central Ohio (SWACO), Grove City, Ohio, has canceled a contract with Team Gemini, Orlando, Florida, which was supposed to build the facility, after the company failed to pay rent on its leased land next to the landfill, according to the Dispatch. The company was late on its rent payments the previous two years as well, the report indicates.
SWACO was to have owned and operated the landfill recovery facility while Team Gemini was to own and operate its Center for Resource Recovery and Recycling (COR3).
All municipal solid waste (MSW) was delivered to the receiving facility. From there, the waste would have been directed to either COR3 or to the landfill. Plans also called for waste conversion technologies such as anaerobic digestion and plastics to oil as part of an industrial research park.
All municipal solid waste (MSW) was delivered to the receiving facility. From there, the waste would have been directed to either COR3 or to the landfill. Plans also called for waste conversion technologies such as anaerobic digestion and plastics to oil as part of an industrial research park.
The article says SWACO’s lawyers sent a letter to the company’s California-based lawyer, Raymond Lee, and its local project director, Matthew E. Ferris, on April 6, 2016.
“The project is done. By virtue of our letter, we’ve terminated the contract. We’ve taken possession of the property,” Ty Marsh, SWACO’s executive director, told the Columbus Dispatch.
Team Gemini was supposed to pay SWACO about $350,000 as an annual rent payment two months ago, but it missed that deadline, the report says. SWACO gave the company a 60-day extension, which passed on April 5.
The letter said the company failed to pay rent but also “improperly suspended the project,” according to the Dispatch.
SWACO had leased about 350 acres to the Florida-based company, which was supposed to build a $100 million facility where garbage trucks would dump trash for recyclables to be removed. Team Gemini then would pay SWACO for the materials, sell them on the open market and dump the rest of the trash at the landfill.
The project was supposed to be completed in June, but work never started.
“There were concerns that were out there about the feasibility of this technology on this size or scale,” Marsh told the Dispatch.
He said in the report that similar facilities have failed around the country as commodity prices have dropped and that Team Gemini couldn’t raise the money needed to build the facility.
Team Gemini and SWACO also worked together to build an access road for the landfill, according to the report. The road is open, but Team Gemini never finished installing lights, fencing and gates at the site.
A court order required the access road to move farther from the I-71/Route 665 interchange.
“We have to get it done," Marsh said to the Columbus Dispatch. "It’s about safety and appearance. It’s about being in compliance with laws and rules.”
The two sides were supposed to split the cost of the road, with SWACO’s expense limited to $2.75 million. So far, SWACO has spent about $1.2 million on the road, according to the report.
SWACO estimates it will cost about $800,000 to finish the road project, make some needed fixes on Route 665 and address storm water compliance problems at the site, the report says. It’s unclear how much of that cost should fall to Team Gemini.
SWACO signed the agreement with Team Gemini in 2013, when the authority was led by Ron Mills, who resigned that year. Now the agency is working with Battelle to figure out how to make money off its waste.
“The failure of the Team Gemini project in no way diminishes our interest in leveraging the waste that’s generated in Franklin County for greater economic opportunity,” Marsh said in an interview with the Columbus Dispatch.
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Source: Recycling Today
Solid Waste Authority of Central Ohio cancels Columbus area recycling facility plans.
<![CDATA[Plans for a recycling sorting facility located Franklin County, Ohio’s landfill have been cancelled, a report from the Columbus Dispatch says. The Solid Waste Authority of Central Ohio (SWACO), Grove City, Ohio, has canceled a contract with Team Gemini, Orlando, Florida, which was supposed to build the facility, after the company failed to pay rent on its leased land next to the landfill, according to the Dispatch. The company was late on its rent payments the previous two years as well, the report indicates. SWACO was to have owned and operated the landfill recovery facility while Team Gemini was to own and operate its Center for Resource Recovery and Recycling (COR3). All municipal solid waste (MSW) was delivered to the receiving facility. From there, the waste would have been directed to either COR3 or to the landfill. Plans also called for waste conversion technologies such as anaerobic digestion and plastics to oil as part of an industrial research park. The article says SWACO’s lawyers sent a letter to the company’s California-based lawyer, Raymond Lee, and its local project director, Matthew E. Ferris, on April 6, 2016. “The project is done. By virtue of our letter, we’ve terminated the…