Project Boosts Recycling in Central Ohio

A “green” industrial park known as The Columbus Transformation Center is being developed to the east of the site of the former Columbus, Ohio, Waste-To-Energy Facility (W.T.E.F.).

The park will host a new manufacturing plant for Rastra Inc. and a major capital investment and expansion by Kurtz Brothers on the site. Both companies plan to break ground in the fall of 2007 for their new facilities.

Rastra will manufacture polystyrene-concrete building materials which could divert up to 87,000 cubic yards of polystyrene annually from the Franklin County Landfill operated by the Solid Waste Authority of Central Ohio (SWACO).

Rastra, based in Columbus, hopes to create 45 to 50 new jobs over a three-year period.

Kurtz Brothers, Independence, Ohio, plans to construct an anaerobic digester on the property. That operation will take organic materials such as yard waste and turn it into energy plant feedstock and marketable products. The project is expected to create five to seven new jobs.

The agreement will also expand mining opportunities for a quarrying company that operates a limestone mine on property adjacent to the SWACO site.

SWACO Executive Director Mike Long says the agreement requires Shelly to fill 10 acres of unusable land for development. The deal also will have Shelly pay SWACO mineral rites for rock mined from the property. Those payments—estimated at about $1.5 million—will be used to further retire the City of Columbus’ debt on the W.T.E.F.

Says Long, “Our economy is strengthened on several fronts. We are putting unused land back to work for the taxpayers of Central Ohio while at the same time bringing new green jobs to the City.”

SWACO provides consumers recycling opportunities around Franklin County, Ohio, through more than 60 recycling drop off-locations at sporting and entertainment venues, in Columbus Public Schools, Port Columbus International Airport and other locations. It also operates the Franklin County Landfill and three transfer stations.

Shelly, based in Thornville, Ohio, is a large producer of asphalt and also a recycler of asphalt and a user of recycled oil.