GBB partners with Michigan county to develop SMM strategies

Gershman, Brickner & Bratton Inc. (GBB), McLean, Virginia, has announced it has been selected by the Kent County, Michigan, Department of Public Works to develop a master plan for more than 200 acres of property to convert waste materials into marketable products. As part of its long-term goal to implement sustainable materials management (SMM) strategies, the department is pursuing the development of a resource park to house facilities to recover discarded materials, to reuse and recycle the recovered material and to convert nonrecyclable material into intermediate products or to recover the energy value of those discards.

The long-term goal for the resource park is to displace landfill use for disposal of waste materials as much as possible by attracting new business ventures that will recover waste materials and convert them into new products. 

Joining GBB for this key assignment are Fishbeck, Thompson, Carr & Huber Inc., a Grand Rapids, Michigan-based engineering, environmental sciences, architecture and construction management firm, and Stern Brothers & Co., an independent investment banking firm headquartered in St. Louis.

"In 2016, we set a roadmap to achieve 20 percent reduction in landfilled waste by 2020 and 90 percent by 2030 to bring Kent County closer to a circular economy system," says Dar Baas, Kent County Department of Public Works director. "A key component of that strategy is the successful establishment of the resource park. The GBB project team has proven that it's up to the challenge with the combination of a clear understanding of our vision, a sensible project approach, past success stories, strength of the project team and recent projects performed for the county." 

As part of the assignment, the GBB project team will conduct stakeholders' meetings; perform waste stream and market analyses; evaluate technologies; develop a master plan for the design and construction of necessary public infrastructure; research funding sources; and evaluate how the services provided by the resource park tenants might interact with Kent County's existing waste management infrastructure. 

"Kent County, the home of Grand Rapids and the second largest metropolitan area in Michigan, has an award-winning solid waste management system. It is unusual for a county in Michigan to offer such extensive services that include a waste-to-energy facility," says Stephen Simmons, GBB senior vice president and officer in charge for this assignment. "Furthermore, the county's solid waste system is managed by a leadership group that has a strong desire to identify and implement positive long-term changes. We could not be prouder of being chosen to help advance the County's sustainability initiatives." 

Kent County has a population of approximately 642,000. The Department of Public Works began providing disposal solutions in the late 1960s and currently provides integrated waste management services to the county and West Michigan with facilities that include a recycling and education center, waste-to-energy facility, North Kent Transfer Station and South Kent Landfill.