Press Releases

San Jose, Calif. – Opening this month, Zero Waste Energy Development Company's (ZWEDC) Dry Fermentation Anaerobic Digestion (AD) Facility in San José will be the first large-scale commercial facility of its kind in the United States.

Food scraps, yard waste and other compostable materials from San Jose businesses will be converted into renewable energy, while producing high quality compost. With organics comprising the largest portion of materials still landfilled, San Jose was committed to developing an innovative facility capable of processing and recovering these valuable materials.

Phase I of the ZWEDC plant will process up to 90,000 tons per year of organic waste, generating approximately 1.6MW of clean renewable power. The facility stands as the largest of its kind in the world.

The ZWEDC facility is part of the City's transformation of its commercial solid waste management system that began in July 2012 when San José adopted a dry/wet collection system for businesses. Recently, that system has more than tripled the commercial recycling rate to over 70 percent.

The San Jose commercial solid waste management system is recognized as the national model. While food waste is already being composted by ZWEDC, the new ZWEDC facility will augment the system with even more advanced processing and recovery of the energy value of the food waste stream. This project moves San Jose closer to achieving its goal of zero waste to landfill by 2022.

The ZWEDC facility site also offered an opportunity for a unique collaboration between ZWEDC, San Jose and CalRecycle, a State regulatory agency. The site was a City-owned unclosed landfill. ZWEDC invested $11.8 million to close the landfill and develop infrastructure on the site as pre-payment for its 30-year lease. Future phases will offer additional revenue in lieu of lease payments as a per ton fee for material processed through those phases.

"As the world center of innovation, San Jose is a proud and fitting home for this innovative waste-to-energy facility," San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed said. "This represents another significant step forward in our city's efforts to divert 100 percent of our waste from landfills and receive all of our energy from clean, renewable resources. I thank ZWEDC for its investments and its ongoing partnership to help San Jose achieve its ambitious Green Vision goals."

ZWEDC was formed in 2011 by GreenWaste Recovery, Inc. (GreenWaste) and Zanker Road Resource Management (Zanker) to improve local organics recovery. ZWEDC conducted research into existing technologies and selected Zero Waste Energy's (ZWE) patented and proven technology that was not only a net energy producer, but also required little water and energy to perform optimally.

"GreenWaste and Zanker are green-minded sustainable companies. We already operate the second largest composting facility in California and process a large portion of the City's organic waste," explained Rich Cristina, the companies' president. "Extracting and utilizing the energy value of organic materials to power our other resource recovery operations was the next evolution for our family of companies."

The fully-enclosed and ventilated facility includes 16 anaerobic digesters plus four in-vessel composting tunnels. Dry fermentation anaerobic digestion is a natural biological process where bacteria break down organic matter in an oxygen-free environment. Decomposition occurs in several stages and converts organic matter into a combustible biogas with a high methane content.

"This project demonstrates the potential for other cities in California and the nation," said Eric Herbert, CEO, ZWE. "We hope that by seeing an organic waste stream become a source of renewable energy at this magnitude, people will recognize the role organic waste and this technology can have for renewable energy on a larger scale."

Implementation of a commercial-scale AD facility will accelerate adoption of biomethane production technology, which has yet to be widely adopted by municipalities throughout California and the U.S. The ZWEDC facility in San José paves the way for other jurisdictions to readily follow.

For a media kit and images of the facility, please visit: www.zwedc.com.

About GreenWaste Recovery, Inc.
GreenWaste is a privately owned and locally operated recycling and diversion company that specializes in the collection and processing of residential and commercial trash, yard trimmings, curbside recyclables, food waste and construction and demolition debris. GreenWaste has been a pioneer in the recycling industry since its inception in 1991 and has demonstrated leadership in efficient, effective and environmentally sound collection and processing operations. GreenWaste's MRF in San José is one of the most innovative processing facilities in the world, capable of sorting and recovering 98% of recyclable materials and 75% of trash for a total facility diversion rate of 88% for household and commercial waste. To learn more about GreenWaste visit www.greenwaste.com.

About Zanker Road Resource Management, Ltd.
Zanker Road Resource Management Ltd. (Zanker) is a privately owned solid waste and recycling company that began operations in 1985 by developing a landfill into a full-service resource management and composting/recycling facility. In 1998, Zanker expanded operations by permitting an adjacent landfill site as a construction and demolition (C&D) debris processing facility. These two facilities process more than 2,000 tons of mixed debris per day. The 1998 expansion also included opening the Z-Best Composting Facility. To learn more about Zanker visit www.zankerrecycling.com.

About Zero Waste Energy Development Company LLC
Zero Waste Energy Development Company LLC is a joint venture between GreenWaste Recovery and Zanker Road Resource Management and was formed to develop and operate the first dry fermentation anaerobic digestion facility in the United States. Zero Waste is designing and permitting a 270,000 tons per year Dry Fermentation Anaerobic Digestion (AD) Facility in San José that will be developed in three (3) phases; each phase will be capable of processing 90,000 tons per year of organic materials. The facility will process and recover energy from source separated food waste and the organic fraction remaining after materials including Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) are processed at GreenWaste's Material Recovery Facility (MRF) and create two products: biogas containing methane and compost. To learn more about ZWEDC visit www.zwedc.com.

About Zero Waste Energy, LLC
Zero Waste Energy, LLC is an industry leading development company that designs, builds, and operates integrated solid waste processing facilities throughout the Americas and Asia. ZWE's principal goal is to optimize waste diversion and the generation of renewable energy in an efficient and environmentally sound manner. With its extensive expertise and advanced technologies, the company offers innovative mixed solid waste processing and patented anaerobic digestion systems for conversion of organic waste into valuable renewable energy and clean compost. To learn more about ZWE visit www.zerowasteenergy.com.

About San Jose Environmental Services Department, Green Vision, and Office of Economic Development
The San Jose Environmental Services Department (www.sanjoseca.gov/esd) is responsible for the management of solid waste collection and recycling; watershed protection and pollution prevention; municipal drinking water and recycled water; community sustainability initiatives, and the operation and infrastructure improvements of the San Jose-Santa Clara Regional Wastewater Facility.

ESD creates innovative projects and initiatives that align with San Jose's Green Vision (www.sanjoseca.gov/greenvision), a long-term plan to lead our community into a sustainable future.

The San Jose Office of Economic Development is committed to a vital, competitive local economy that increases prosperity for people and companies. For more information, go to www.sjeconomy.com, or follow us on Twitter @sjeconomy, #sjplace.

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