State diverts over 40 percent by composting and recycling
Source: BioCycle, September 2006

Wisconsin Recycling Means Business, a new publication of the Department of Natural Resources, profiled the Bruce Company of Middleton showing how it takes yard trimmings from nine southcentral communities "turning them into new lawns that grow faster and require fewer chemical treatments than typical turf."

Since 2003, the three composting sites operated by Bruce receive 15,000 to 20,000 cu yds each - paid for by the municipalities. It takes from four to eight months to produce compost, which is used in the firm's landscaping business with some sold to local contractors. Bruce Company mixes the compost with grass seed, fertilizer and applies it to a lawn site with a blower truck. James Altwies, the company's environmental coordinator, estimates that approximately 1,000 lawns have been created during the program's first two years.

Besides yard waste, the company accepts wood scrap from construction projects at no cost, (about 1,000 cu yds of wood per week. With the three sites running close to capacity, Bruce plans to expand the program in the future.

Meanwhile, at the Miller Brewing Company in Milwaukee, the brewery is working with Cargill to find beneficial reuses for by-products such as spent brewer's grain and spent brewer's yeast which the company would like to recycle along with aged beer to produce energy-generating biogas. And in nearby Neenah, the Minergy Corp. is turning sludge into an energy feedstock. At its 50,000 sq ft Fox Valley plant, the firm converts paper mill sludge from eight mills into glass aggregate. After drying the sludge, Minergy uses a process called vitrification - also producing steam to generate power.

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