business

Al Thompson would love to find a good use for the tons of burned sand that get tossed weekly from the Federal-Mogul Corp. foundry he manages in Lake City.

The company recycles its coolants and re-melts every speck of waste metal locally. But it can't find a local firm to take its biggest source of waste: sand. The sand, which Federal-Mogul reuses again and again to make car-piston molds, eventually ends up in a landfill.

"That is really an important aspect for us to eliminate the waste stream," Thompson said.

Like Thompson, dozens of plant managers across the state continue to grudgingly dump waste in landfills. Unlike large manufacturers such as 3M Co., Donaldson Co. Inc. and Andersen Windows, smaller firms often don't have sophisticated recycling programs, or they have one or two waste byproducts for which they don't know what else to do.

Enter Wayne Gjerde, a matchmaker whose job is to find new, profitable uses for all kinds of Minnesota waste. As one of three recycling market development coordinators for the Minnesota Office of Environmental Assistance, Gjerde is on a mission to bring new economic value to the toughest waste. His latest challenges include finding homes for discarded roof shingles, wood shavings, old shoes and carpet, shoemakers' leather scraps and foundry sand.

"If you can start cranking these off into smaller waste streams and adding some value to them," that creates jobs, helps the economy and saves the environment at the same time, Gjerde said. Recycling has created 9,003 jobs and $65 million in taxes for Minnesota. Still, more could be done.

In 2002, Minnesota factories and homes tossed out 3 million tons of waste that was burned or buried at a cost of $146 million. More than a third of that waste could have been recovered, recycled and turned into paper, steel and other raw materials worth an estimated $85 million, according to a recent state study, Gjerde said.

Take Al Thompson's sand.

"Some states are using it in road construction instead of putting it in the landfill. We would very much encourage Minnesota to do that. But I know they don't currently allow that. But Iowa does, so we are looking to ship this spent sand to Iowa," Thompson said.

In a few cases, the Office of Environmental Assistance helped route Minnesota's foundry sand to the few companies that use it to make cement.

"But mostly it ends up in landfills at this point," Gjerde admitted.

While it's a long shot, Gjerde is hoping to get the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency to approve foundry sand to fill potholes.

Similarly, a state grant helped Bituminous Roadways Inc. get the right equipment to grind shingles into an asphalt additive. The Minnesota Department of Transportation uses the shingle-asphalt mix to pave parking lots and roads, freeing up 200,000 yards of landfill space and saving up to $2.8 million a year.

Other trash is tougher to place.

At the Red Wing Shoe Co. plant in Red Wing, carts of fresh leather scraps go to the dumpster.

"Nobody wants them," plant manager Chris Zylka said. "We've tried to find another use for them. But it hasn't worked out. If we found someone to take them, they could have them."

Hearing of the problem, Gjerde started making phone calls.

"I am working on a project right now that turns leather into an oil absorbent," Gjerde said. "It's pretty neat. Right now they are grinding up shoes."