When the next big storm hits, can oysters save New York City?

A new project aims to shore up the disappearing coastline of New York City’s Staten Island, while reviving a once famously thriving oyster population

Billion Oyster Project workers place oysters in the water from a pier at Brooklyn Bridge Park in New York City in August 2020. Photograph: Ted Shaffrey/AP

By Clark Mindock The Guardian

On a recent Saturday afternoon, diners at the Brooklyn restaurant Grand Army slurped oysters drizzled in mignonette and lemon juice against a soundtrack of hip-hop classics and funk. Unbeknown to many of them, they were also supporting a new effort to use oyster shells as building blocks for new, living coastal reefs – a transformative use that’s not only restorative but may also help protect the city from climate change.

Grand Army is one of dozens of restaurants in the city donating its oyster shells to support restoration projects like Living Breakwaters, a $107m effort to shore up the disappearing coastline of New York City’s Staten Island.

An oyster served at Grand Army

The project will consist of nearly a half-mile of partially submerged breakwaters, strategically covered in recycled oyster reefs. As those reefs grow, the project’s designers hope they will help control flooding and coastal erosion while providing new habitat for abundant aquatic life.

In a sense, Living Breakwaters is an attempt to reimagine the relationship between humans and nature in one of the world’s most heavily engineered harbors. It is a departure from so-called gray infrastructure like dikes, seawalls and dams – the tools that largely define New York’s efforts to control flooding.

Instead, the project is designed to protect the city by harnessing the power of the very natural systems that have been all but destroyed by environmental degradation – and reviving them in the process.

For thousands of years, oysters played a special role in the story of New York. Once a staple of the Lenape people’s diet, oysters led European visitors later to write home in wonder of their quality, and colonizers turned them into a major industry – ultimately devastating local oyster populations through pollution and overconsumption.

Read the full story here

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Atlantic County Utilities Authority seeking bids for solid waste hauling and disposal

County’s landfill expected to reach capacity in 2027

By Sara J. Verrillo ACUA
ACCU

Egg Harbor Township, NJ — May 23, 2022 — The Atlantic County Utilities Authority (ACUA) is currently seeking qualified bidders for the hauling and disposal of solid waste from Atlantic County in anticipation that the landfill will reach capacity in 2027. Bids are due on July 13, 2022.

“Since the landfill was built, we have known it would eventually fill and close,” said ACUA President Rick Dovey. “We have been preparing for this and exploring opportunities for many years. This bid is the next prudent step.”

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Atlantic County ratepayers benefit from the public bidding process which is transparent and ensures contracts are entered into fairly and without bias. Bidders are required to provide information on the intended equipment and vehicles that will be used for transportation as well as the designated disposal or recovery facilities that will accept the waste. Bidders will need to provide necessary permits and licenses related to operating a solid waste hauling and disposal business as well as references from current partners.

As the agency designated to implement Atlantic County’s Solid Waste Management Plan, ACUA is responsible for ensuring the safe and responsible disposal of solid waste on behalf of Atlantic County residents, businesses, and institutions. This bid is one avenue the Authority will use to evaluate options in advance of the landfill’s ultimate closure.

ACUA currently operates a 68,000 sq. ft. transfer station, recycling center, composting facility, and landfill at its 360-acre Environmental Park in Egg Harbor Township. The site was developed after an extensive procurement and permitting process and is specifically designed to handle the large flow of waste in and out of the facility.

Related news:
Once the ACUA landfill runs out of room, what’s next? (Atlantic City Press)

“ACUA operated solely as a transfer station for seven years before the approval and construction of the landfill,” said Dovey. “We are prepared to do that again and will be judicious in selecting a responsible partner.”

Prior to the creation of ACUA, trash was buried in unlined landfills, which caused pollution and groundwater contamination. ACUA’s regional approach has increased oversight and greatly improved the quality of life for residents in Atlantic County. It has also stabilized rates – ACUA has historically offered the lowest in the state.

“While we expect rates will increase once the landfill is closed, we will continue to offer innovative and revenue-generating services and products that will help keep rates affordable for our community,” said Dovey.

Currently, ACUA ratepayers benefit from a range of supplementary services offered by the Authority, including curbside waste and recycling collection, street sweeping, EcoSoil production, and more, that help stabilize rates for customers.

ACUA will also continue to research alternatives to landfilling and expects to release a request for proposal (RFP) for new technologies in the coming months. It will be the third time ACUA has sought information on such projects in the past 10 years.

Interested bidders can access the bid documents at www.acua.com/bids.

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Newsweek names Sims Limited one of America’s most responsible companies

By Scrap News

Metal recycler Sims Limited (Sims) has announced that the company made Newsweek’s list of America’s Most Responsible Companies for the second year in a row. The list highlights companies that are leaders in environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) practices.

In partnership with Statista, Newsweek evaluated the top 2,000 U.S.-based public companies by revenue on key corporate responsibility indicators including environmental stewardship; workforce and leadership diversity; community impact; disclosure and transparency; and economic performance, among other factors. Statista also conducted a survey of more than 11,000 people on how these efforts were perceived.

“We are proud to be recognized among America’s top companies as a corporate responsibility and ESG leader,” said Alistair Field, group chief executive officer and managing director of Sims Limited. “We are committed to operating in a way that is best in class – extending to our environmental stewardship, respect of laws and human rights, and positive engagement in our communities. This will help us to achieve our purpose: create a world without waste to preserve our planet.”

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Over the past year, Sims made various commitments in its corporate sustainability program including committing to become carbon neutral by 2030 and to use 100% renewable electricity across all operations by 2025. Earlier this year, Sims was ranked 11th on Corporate Knight’s Global 100 List of the most sustainable companies in the world. In 2021, Sims became a signatory to the United Nations Global Compact, a corporate leadership platform that focuses on aligning strategy and operations with achieving societal benefits. Sims responded to the crisis in Ukraine by making a $200,000 (AUD) donation to UNICEF Australia to provide humanitarian relief.

“Sims Limited’s businesses enable a sustainable future,” Field adds. “Metal products made with recycled materials are lower in embodied emissions and are a key building block for technologies, including electric vehicles and renewable energy infrastructure that are essential to realizing a sustainable, low-carbon economy.”

The company’s annual Sustainability Report shares more about how Sims continues to strengthen its practices to deliver social, environmental, and economic value.

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Lithium-ion battery industry ramps up recycling focus as geopolitical events challenge supply chain

Nic Antaya via Getty Images

By Katie Pyzyk Waste Dive

Recent geopolitical events — including Russia’s war in Ukraine, the domestic infrastructure law, and President Joe Biden’s invocation of the Defense Production Act — are impacting the supply of critical minerals used in lithium-ion battery manufacturing and contributing to soaring commodity prices. Businesses dependent on lithium-ion batteries are exploring investments and advancements in battery recycling as ways to ease these metal supply-chain concerns.

“Recycling lithium-ion batteries is an important part of ensuring a healthy supply chain,” said Jeff Spangenberger, director of the ReCell Center, a consortium based at Argonne National Laboratory that advances battery recycling research and development. “This is a new industry, for the most part, compared to a lot of other recycling industries. There’s a lot of room for improvement.”

About 99% of raw and component materials for the batteries are produced outside the U.S., and the domestic supply chain is in its infancy. In December, the U.S. Department of Energy released a list of 13 new domestic electric vehicle battery manufacturing plants that are scheduled to come online in the next five years, eight of which are joint ventures between battery manufacturers and automakers. Most of the current focus on lithium-ion battery recycling is on recovering passenger vehicle batteries because the commercial EV market is still in its infancy.

The DPA’s stated intent is to boost critical mineral supply to meet clean energy needs through mining, recycling and identifying unconventional sources. President Biden invoked it in March in response to soaring gas prices following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Former President Donald Trump previously signed executive orders to boost the critical minerals supply as well. Recycling batteries recover critical minerals for reuse in new, domestically-produced batteries and reduces U.S. dependence on foreign virgin materials in tight supply. 

“In order for the industry to be sustainable, and to de-risk it, it’s very important to localize in North America,” said Michael Insulan, vice president of commercial at Toronto-based battery recycler Electra Battery Materials Corp. The company’s battery materials industrial park in Ontario, Canada, is expected to begin pilot production later this year. Following a four-phase expansion, the campus eventually will house a Li-ion battery recycling facility, plants for refining and processing cobalt and nickel, and a facility to manufacture the cobalt and nickel into next-step battery materials. 

Despite its relative newness, Li-ion battery recycling is expanding quickly. That’s a good thing, sources say, because battery demand is ballooning. Demand is so high for these commodities that recycling alone will not boost supply enough. 

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“This is an extraordinarily rapid growth market, so the supply challenge is tremendous — maybe a bigger supply challenge than the world has seen in several decades,” Insulan said. 

Rockwood lithium mine in Silver Peak, NevadaSkyhobo via Getty Images

Commodity crunch

Metals including lithium, nickel and cobalt are essential for the transition to clean energy technologies powered by electricity instead of fossil fuels. Electric vehicles and their batteries are at the forefront of that movement. In April, the CEO of EV startup Rivian warned of a looming battery shortage as demand for EVs rises, signaling the critical mineral shortfall and the largely unbuilt battery supply chain. 

For example, Russia’s war in Ukraine is disrupting that country’s dominant mining and processing industries for metals, including nickel. And the goal of some funding for EV charging stations in the 2021 infrastructure law is to spur additional EV adoption; that’s driving up EV and battery material demand. The crunch is pushing already volatile metal markets to new heights.

Read the full story here

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$588M in low-cost loans pouring into NJ water infrastructure projects (video)

By Brenda Flanagan NJ Spotlight News

A big package of funds will go to projects in Newark, Trenton, Jersey City, Hoboken, and more towns suffering from archaic pipes and processing plants. The announcement was made at a refurbished treatment plant in Moorestown where 3-million gallons of water are pulled daily from a contaminated underground aquifer and purified to meet drinking water standards.

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