Category: Business

US waste management companies

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Chambers Development

It is a company created in the 1960s by Mr. John Rangos which remains the main shareholder until the merger. The company began by recycling ash from coke combustion, then with steel waste by transforming it into products to build roads; then became interested in the residues of power plants.

In the 1970s, the company bought landfills which it gradually brought up to standard, which allowed it to enter into waste treatment. It was listed on the stock exchange in 1985; it had a turnover of $260m in 1990. It merged with USA Waste in 1994.

No. 2 Allied-BFI

In the spring of 1999, the same scenario repeated itself. The small Allied Waste Industries ($ 1.6bn) from Arizona takes control of the world number 2 BFI ($ 4bn, Texas), much older and larger.

The gap between the two protagonists is all the more apparent when we examine the courses. In 1990, Allied was not even mentioned in the list of companies in the sector; at that time BFI was already doing $3bn in business. In 1995, Allied was approaching $600 million in sales.

It was by forced march, through mergers often paid for in exchange for shares, that it rose to this level. Its strength despite the speed of growth has been to target its acquisitions in order to obtain a high integration rate. This indicator corresponds to the share of waste collected by a firm and treated in equipment it controls; it gives an idea of ​​its independence and its control of the value chain.

In the 1970s, the most far-sighted actors had understood that waste and junk treatment was going to become strategic and that firms which would only be present in waste collection would be exposed to a ruinous increase in landfill costs while their revenue from collection fixed by old contracts would not follow, which would weaken them financially. This is what happened and explains the very rapid movement of consolidation.

For this merger Allied receives the support of two of its institutional shareholders: Blackstone Group and Apollo Management. The operation was completed in July 1999 and broke down into an acquisition for $7.7bn and a debt assumption for around $1.9bn.

The merger gives rise to a set of $ 6bn of activities. It was immediately followed by an asset disposal program for $1.7bn. Some imposed by the Department of Justice; this is how $230m of assets will be sold to Republic Services after approval by the Department, which ensures that these exchanges do not lead to distortion of competition in certain counties.

Other voluntary disposals aim to reduce the debt. This is how the group sold its 20% stake in Sita; it will be taken over by Suez; a year earlier BFI had sold its international activities to the French group and this entry into the capital was part of the transaction.

Conversely, Allied found itself in the position of buyer of assets for $85m, sold this time by Waste Management as part of its acquisition of Eastern Environmental Services in April 1999.

Despite everything, the new group remains very indebted: more than $9bn in the year 2000. It must ensure a debt repayment of $1.2bn for this financial year. The accounts at the end of March 1999, like those for 1998, show net losses of approximately $250m.

Browning Ferris Industries

Already number 2 in the sector before this merger (transportation and removal), is a very decentralized Houston company which experienced various problems of compliance with regulations in the late 1980s.

The arrival in 1988 of the former director of EPA, Mr Ruckelshaus, marked a turning point. In 1989, the group made significant provisions leading to an accounting loss. The following year he sold his toxic waste treatment subsidiary with a provision of $300m. He must admit insider trading by two directors of a subsidiary (9/91). All of this, combined with lower-than-expected results for 1992, reduced confidence.

After a complete overhaul, the group resumed an external growth policy. In 1993, he acquired a hundred companies including Myrtle Beach dumpster rentals and Sandy Springs Dumpster Guys, reinforcing his integration policy. This control of landfills is strategic in two ways because it makes it possible to control the entire waste cycle and therefore the formation of costs and above all this control makes it possible to asphyxiate small collection companies which do not have their landfill and which can be taken over at better price.

Abroad BFI made two significant acquisitions in 1994 with 50% of Otto, a German company with turnover of 2.4 billion francs, and the acquisition of the English company Attwoods, sold by Laidlaw. Once the margins have been restored, the director directs BFI towards the new recycling market (paper). The figure for this division increased from $9.6m in 1990 to $370m in 1994.

Household waste management facing complex legislation

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The different waste collection methods in Orange Park vary according to their nature. They are as follows:

Household waste is collected door-to-door at the whole county level. This is all waste relating to the times the individuals who produce them daily, the municipalities have the burden of collecting and destroying them, as well as the factory that technically is the guarantor of this destruction. Orange Park production is 218,000 tons in 2008 or 309 Kg per inhabitant per year. But the acuteness of the problems posed by household garbage is expected to increase steadily, due to the increase in population.

The collection of other waste similar to household waste, namely all other waste from households or of the same nature as household waste cannot be done with regular waste given the important volume and the toxicity of the latter. So the bulky waste or “monsters” i.e. large-scale waste (furniture, appliances, etc.) are handled separately by dumpster rental companies. Waste can also be attached to it automotive (tires). The collection of this waste is much less organized than that of regular household waste.

However, there are several methods of collecting bulky items: (1) door-to-door collection, as for regular waste, but with a much lower frequency, usually once a week. Experience shows that this collection method is not sufficient, since this waste is often produced during storage and they can hardly be stored by the residents, especially while awaiting collection.

Some door-to-door collections are not done with a regular frequency, but on call from the individual to the town hall. In addition, the update arrangement of dumpsters on the public highway tends to decline because it collects all-round waste (household waste, waste from artisan traders, corpses animals, etc.): this method of collection therefore has the disadvantages of not be very aesthetic.

Finally, the recycling center is a place where individuals can bring all kinds of waste, including bulky items, and sometimes a dumpster rental company will take care of it for them. But, a recycling center does not replace a landfill, especially as waste that is brought to the recycling center just passes through and is then sent to the various recovery channels.

The waste is distributed in different containers according to its nature. the recycling facility is a closed and guarded place. Bringing this bulky waste to a recycling center therefore allows some waste to be repaired and resold, and some are just recycled: paper-cardboard, glass, plastic. Also, 110 kilos of paper and cardboard are thrown in the trash by every resident of Florida.

A significant consumption since it amounts to 80,000 tonnes of paper: 30,000 tonnes come from manufacturers, traders or communities, and 50,000 tonnes are thrown directly into the recycle bin by individuals. Only 15,000 tonnes of paper are recovered for recycling.

According to Orange Park dumpsters, once sorted, pressed and packaged, they leave for East Africa, Southeast Asia and China. Why are they recycled there rather than locally? Experts explains that the deposit is much too small to consider the creation of a recycling facility. In New England, there are only two or three facilities. These are very important installations, which require substantial investments which could not be profitable here. Recycling does not yet make a big deal, in addition, these factories are very polluting.

Then comes banal industrial waste resulting from artisanal, commercial or industrial activity and not having a priori a toxic character. Their type is the same as that of household waste, so they can be eliminated using the same techniques, but their production is more massive. Manufacturers take care of their elimination.

Out of the 68 000 tons of ordinary industrial waste produced in Orange Park every year, 16% are already recycled. In fact, estimates are difficult especially when it comes to surveys because local companies are not very communicative.

How to strengthen environmental health for citizens

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Elected officials, institutions, health professionals, associations and citizens can promote training and information to improve awareness of environmental health and waste management concerns:

  • due to the more or less well-known impact on health of exposure to environmental pollution
  • the fact that everyone is involved in their own health and that of others
  • as a beneficiary to take into account the need for an environment favorable to health, in particular by local authorities and other players in town and country planning

The objective of this initiative revolves around the following concepts:

  • inform or communicate, which consists in sharing, transmitting something to someone without necessarily expecting the person concerned to have specific behavior or skills
  • raise awareness, which means to be able to react to something of which we have become aware; the objective sought is often the modification or adaptation of a behavior or an attitude towards a given situation
  • train what corresponds to giving an education in order to acquire additional specific skills

The objective is to create a common culture of stakeholders in environmental health education, to promote the appropriation by local authorities of their role in environmental health. It is also to promote the development by the general public of behaviors favorable to environmental health, to promote urban planning, regional planning and mobility favorable to health concerns, to better support urban development projects and to promote the health dimension awareness.

Land use planning projects and operations condition the main environmental determinants that can have an impact on the health of the population. However, these links between town and country planning, mobility and health are underestimated, even overlooked.

Today, the terms health and environment do not appear explicitly in town planning documents, but these documents incorporate the concepts of noise, air quality, mobility, etc.

The objective of this initiative is to ensure that health and environmental issues are integrated at each stage of urban development and alternative mobility projects and operations, whatever their territorial scale and beyond regulatory obligations. It is important to change the vision of the public authorities on these aspects and to provide better waste management solutions to reduce pollution.

At the same time, citizens must be brought to develop their practices and get involved in the co-construction of projects. Knowing the impact of air pollution on people’s health is key. In 2013, WHO classified outdoor air pollution as carcinogenic. It is the average level of pollution of the air we breathe that has the greatest impact on our health. If all the municipalities in the region reached the lowest concentrations observed in the equivalent municipalities, thousands of deaths would be avoided each year.

The areas more particularly impacted by atmospheric pollution are linked to human activities. The combination with social inequalities in health must be taken into account to determine the so-called priority challenges areas. To date, there is a lack of knowledge about these areas. More specifically, in these territories, suitable and accessible tools must be made available to stakeholders to help decision-making and deploy relevant actions, in particular aimed at changing behavior with respect to waste management and pollution.

This action includes two complementary measures:

  • develop knowledge and exposure maps relating to the quality of outdoor air
  • better characterize these so-called priority challenges areas with regard to air pollution
  • conduct a feasibility study on the cross-referencing of environmental, health and social deprivation data, in order to subsequently develop a tool to determine areas with priority challenges vis-à-vis air pollution

    • Reduce the expansion of plants that emit allergenic pollens

    Pollens are recognized by the environmental code as air pollution by biological agents. Actions on the problem of the presence of allergenic pollens in the air need to be carried out at different geographical levels and in a coordinated manner.

    The USA is affected by numerous plants with allergenic pollen (plane tree, cypress, grasses, ragweed, etc.). The geographic distribution varies depending on the species. Between 15% and 20% of the population suffers from pollinosis due to the presence of allergenic pollens in the air.

    A surveillance system was implemented by the National Aerobiological Surveillance Network, which has sensors to determine the amounts of allergenic pollens in the air. Sentinel pollinariums aim to finely detect the beginning and the end of the emission of pollens from locally gathered species (main plants and shrubs whose pollen is allergenic in the geographical area).

    This additional information, which comes under national systems, is transmitted to allergy sufferers who adapt the course of their treatment. In addition some states have set up a cartopollen tool which makes it possible to predict precisely, at the scale of the county, from phenological data, weather and land use, cypress pollen emissions. Finally, there are observatory type devices on the presence of allergenic plants or production of pollens.

    This action aims to make legible, even coordinate, on the regional territory, the system for monitoring and reducing colonization by plants with allergenic pollens.

    Insights About The Property Buying Process

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    As you might imagine, purchasing a property entails knowing a lot of information regarding the buying process so you avoid any bump on the road. People are naturally curious and it is a good thing in this situation. But if you are working with a professional who has been working as an agent for many years, it will take you less effort to learn about the technicalities of investing in real estate.

    And you could save some money as well by avoiding some of the traps that may present themselves to anyone with little or no experience in this type of real estate investment.

    Whether you are a first-time buyer or someone who has bought a property before, you still need some refreshers on how the process of buying a house works nowadays. Regulations and market practices change, so keep up to date. Below are some of the information Kale Realty shares with their clients to ensure that they have the most basic information before they select a property.

    Length of the Purchase

    Some buyers ask their agent how long it usually takes to buy a home. Under normal market conditions, the average period is between a month to 45 days. However, some prepared home buyers have been known to process everything a lot faster. In hot markets with much sale activity, buying a home might take a little longer. One of the factors that can also slow down the buying process is when there are lender turn-around times for underwritten loans.

    You Need To Be Of Age

    To be eligible for a home loan, you must be at least 21 years old and should provide your proof of income. Even if you are independent at a young age who has been earning a stable income, it is highly likely that you will stumble into some problems. The termination of the loan must happen before or when you turn 65 years old. Loan regulation is stringent, even more so since the 2008 crisis which some many unprepared borrowers who had to forfeit theit property because of unrealistic leverage ratios.

    The Agent Fees

    Many buyers also wonder how long they can pay a real estate agent to help them choose and buy a house. Home shoppers pay almost little to no fees at all. For most home sales, there are two agents involved–one that represents the seller and the other represents the buyer. Agents who represent the buyer are usually compensated by the share they get from the money listing brokers get from their clients. However, this is not always the case. So always ask your agent about this.

    When you are new to the buying process in real estate, it can be daunting, thrilling and sometimes odd. But when you familiarize yourself with this peculiar process and allow your real estate agent to handle all the complicated stuff for you, things should go smoothly.

    Every location is different. What is true in Chicago maybe untrue in New York or Los Angeles. Market conditions and regulations vary from state to state and even from city to city, one more reason to use a knowledgeable agent with inside knowledge about the specific location you are eyeing.