Covanta Reports Two-Fold Jump in Recovery of Non-Ferrous Metals

SEATTLE (Scrap Monster): The latest Sustainability Report published by Covanta outlines sustainability performance and the significant progress made by the company against its earlier set recycling goals. According to the new Global Sustainability Report, the company avoided, recycled or reused over 900,000 tons of waste. The report also indicates two-fold rise in volume of non-ferrous metals recovered for recycling. It covers the company’s global operations in 2015 through the end of the 2016 calendar year.

Covanta President and CEO Stephen J. Jones emphasized the company’s commitment to the three pillars of sustainability-people, planet and prosperity. Meantime, Paul Gilman, Covanta’s chief sustainability officer expressed immense pleasure with the considerable strides the company have made towards achieving its target. The company will continue its efforts to provide safe and diverse workplace for its employees and develop and maintain strong ties with local communities, Gilaman added. Incidentally, the National Safety Council has awarded 26 of Covanta facilities with Occupational Excellence Achievement Award.

The investments in new technology and systems have helped the company almost double the amount of non-ferrous metals recovered from waste over the past five years. Incidentally, recycling metals from waste avoids release of greenhouse gases and result in recovery of valuable natural resources. The company recovered a total of 513,000 tons of metal in 2016. Covanta launched commercial operations at Fairless Hills, Pennsylvania facility, which in turn has aided significant improvement in the quality of recycled metals. The implementation of total ash processing system (TAPS) is expected to deliver improved recovery of high-value metals.

According to the report, the company has been successful in reducing air emissions by up to 50% when compared with 2007 levels. The Covanta facilities in the US have consistently fallen below the established limits foe air emissions. The company has been actively promoting efforts to boost ways to control air emissions through timely upgrade of its control systems. For instance, the installation of three new baghouses at the Newark, New Jersey facility is expected to extract out 99.5% of the particulate matter.

Covanta is a world leader in providing sustainable waste and energy solutions. The company’s modern Energy-from-Waste facilities recycle approximately 500,000 tons of metal every year.