ReCarbon Inc., a developer of greenhouse gas technology in Santa Clara, California, has announced a supply agreement with H2Renewables LLC., a landfill gas (LFG)-to-hydrogen project developer based in Cleveland, Tennessee.

According to a news release from ReCarbon, the agreement activates an accelerated pathway to match the growing demand for cost-effective green hydrogen from LFG.

Highlights of the agreement include:

• five sites to utilize LFG to produce carbon-negative green hydrogen. The first site in McDonald, Tennessee, is slated to produce 12 tons of hydrogen per day;
• additionally, the partnership has identified significant numbers of suitable sites throughout the U.S. capable of producing in excess of 60 tons of hydrogen per day;
• cost-effective green hydrogen is crucial for the scale-up of heavy hydrogen fuel-cell mobility, such as back-to-base and long-haul trucks and buses;
• pathways towards qualifying for both RINS and LCFS credits are being developed, further enhancing the competitiveness of the green hydrogen; and,
• playing a part in the proliferation of renewable hydrogen from waste sources is a shared vision of both companies.

"ReCarbon is pleased to announce this major commercial milestone and looks forward to continuing our close partnership with H2Renewables in the development of significant carbon-negative green hydrogen production facilities—the beginning of realizing our vision of a localized green hydrogen ecosystem,” says Jay Kim, CEO and founder of ReCarbon.

Generational Equity, a Dallas-based mergers and acquisitions advisor for privately held businesses, announced the sale of its client, ACT Disposal LLC, to Ontario-based Waste Connections. The transaction closed July 1, 2021.

ACT Disposal, located in New Braunfels, Texas, is a roll-off container delivery and construction debris disposal company. In operation for more than 13 years, ACT has relationships serving businesses such as homebuilders and remodelers, roofers and commercial construction contractors throughout the Texas markets of San Antonio, New Braunfels, Boerne, Bulverde, Spring Branch, Canyon Lake, Wimberley and San Marcos.

Generational Equity Executive Managing Director of M&A, Central Region, Michael Goss, and his team led by Managing Director, M&A, Luan Ly, helped close the deal. Generational Equity Senior Managing Director Joe Van Voorhis established the original relationship with ACT, according to the company.

“The transaction process with Waste Connections and ACT was seamless, where both parties kept true to their word and got the transaction done smoothly, in record time,” Ly says.

Since the introduction of a statewide food waste disposal ban over a year ago, Vermont has reported a significant spike in the number of residential and commercial compost services in the state.

The Universal Recycling Law (Act 148), which was passed unanimously by the Vermont Legislature in 2012, has been updated in 2018, 2019 and 2020 to add amendments in order to meet the state’s 50 percent recycling goal.

The most recent update in July 2020 introduced the proposal to ban the disposal of food waste in landfills.

“I was out of work last spring. I was reading about that law, and so I started this business based on what I thought would be a residential need,” Zach Cavacas, owner and operator of Stockbridge, Vermont-based Music Mountain Compost, told VTDigger.

In its first year, Music Mountain Compost has grown from zero to more than 300 customers. The company offers bi-weekly residential and commercial compost pickup and has diverted over 40 tons of food waste over the past year.

“The growth rate is incredible, and I’ve also been to over 70 towns. There’s a huge need for this,” Cavacas said.

The Vermont Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) estimates that the number of food scrap haulers has more than tripled, from 12 haulers in 2012, to 45 in 2021.

Vermont sales of supplies for backyard composters (compost bins, kitchen countertop collectors, food scrap buckets, etc.) has also rose, jumping from $7,132 to $19,681 in the past year, said Susan Alexander, manager of the Lamoille Regional Solid Waste District. In 2020 alone, the district took in 146 tons of food scraps for composting; that rose to 166 tons in the past six months.

To meet state guidelines, the district established Lamoille Soil in Johnson as a composting operation. Alexander told VTDigger she hopes to eventually see small hauling companies offer bundles or packages for food scraps, recycling and trash.

“At some point, we need to see the marketplace adjust pricing appropriately, and that the cost of managing your food scraps is actually less than the cost of landfill fees. This will really help more people be able to afford curbside collection service,” she said.

According to DEC Materials Management Section Manager Josh Kelly, prior to the most recent food waste ban Vermont would send about 80,000 tons of food to landfills a year.

“As more people get educated on composting, a lot of times they’ll try it themselves,” Cavacas told VTDigger. At first, “they don’t want to compost in their backyard, or they don’t know how. I found myself that education has been the most important part and telling people they can have someone pick it up or learn how to do it and make their own soil.”

Denver-based Amp Robotics Corp., an artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics manufacturer, has announced it is expanding its presence in Europe as demand grows for the company’s AI and automation solutions. Amp has appointed REP-TEC Advanced Technologies, which is based in Dungannon, Ireland, and specializes in the supply, installation and support of recycling equipment, as an official reseller and integrator for customers in the United Kingdom and Ireland. 

According to a news release from Amp, it has hired Gary Ashburner as its European general manager to build out the company’s infrastructure across the region. Based in the U.K., Ashburner leads customer and partner acquisition, presales and postsales consulting, system design, supply, installation, training and service.

“We’re seeing greater interest in and adoption of our technology in the U.S., with customers reordering our AI-guided robotic sorting systems to install in other facilities that they own,” Ashburner says. “This is generating a robust pipeline in the U.S. that’s being mirrored internationally, following the installation of our first robotic sorting system in Europe late last year. We share a commitment to improving global resource efficiency and productivity with REP-TEC and look forward to working with an established leader that also embraces new technology and innovation as we extend our efforts to modernize and expand recycling infrastructure in Europe and globally.”

Amp says its European expansion reflects strong yearly growth and investment in operational scale made possible by its latest funding round of $55 million at the beginning of the year. Its AI platform, Amp Neuron, encompasses the largest known real-world dataset of recyclable materials for machine learning, with the ability to classify more than 100 different categories and characteristics of recyclables across single-stream recycling, e-scrap and construction and demolition debris and reaching an object recognition run rate of more than 10 billion items annually, according to the company. 

“We’re delighted to partner with Amp Robotics and support the company’s growth across the U.K. and Ireland,” says Colm Grimes, CEO of REP-TEC. “We recognize the desire to add AI and robotics to Europe’s recycling infrastructure and believe Amp has developed a system that will change the economics of this industry. We’ll be installing our first three Amp Cortex high-speed sorting systems later this summer. This will provide a great U.K. reference site with the ability to run material trials for interested parties.”

To further its market penetration, Amp says it plans to establish additional reseller partnerships in Belgium, The Netherlands, Luxembourg, Germany and France.