Project Profiles
Confidential Client A
Sustainable Resources Group (SRG) utilized its experience with food residuals recycling to reduce the operating costs for a major soluble coffee manufacturer. By performing an audit of the waste streams the manufacturer produces, SRG was able to identify several high strength liquid wastes that could be diverted to land application. Diverting the waste from the wastewater discharge reduced the wastewater surcharges the coffee manufacturer was paying for excess biological oxygen demand and suspended solids. In addition, by diverting from disposal at a wastewater plant, the waste’s nutrients are recovered for agricultural crop growth and the energy expended to treat the wastewater is reduced.
Working cooperatively with the coffee manufacturer and implementing slight equipment and process modifications, SRG facilitated the collection of the liquid for land application. SRG provides the logistics and management to remove the waste and utilize it as a fertilizer, including all regulatory compliance.
The efforts of SRG to provide beneficial re-use of the high strength liquid waste streams are estimated to have saved the coffee manufacturer $2M annually in sewer surcharges.
Confidential Client B
For more than 15 years, Sustainable Resources Group (SRG) has provided this client with turnkey service providing beneficial re-use of residuals from the production of soluble coffee. SRG manages the use of 25,000 tons of bulk residuals and another 7.5 million gallons of liquid residuals annually. The residuals are used for a variety of applications from a manufactured consumer product to lawn and garden products or as a source of nutrients and organic matter for sod and field crops. Most recently SRG installed a drying facility on a property adjacent to the manufacturing facility. The dried coffee grounds paved the way for a variety of salable products including a patented pellet manufacturing lubricant, grilling pellets, fuel pellets, soil conditioner, and organic fertilizers.
Local land application of the plant’s liquid wastewater treatment residuals allowed the plant to save the cost associated with dewatering the residuals. It also diverted the waste from landfill disposal.
SRG provides the management, logistics and regulatory compliance to ensure the client with year round beneficial re-use of the manufacturing residuals. The logistics include removing residuals from the manufacturer's limited on-site storage to ensure continuous productions. SRG provides the permitting, nutrient management, soil testing and regulatory reporting associated with land application.
The relationship developed with this client has expanded to other of the client’s manufacturing facilities. SRG now services two additional manufacturing facilities and is engaged in finding sustainable waste disposal options at a number of other facilities.
