What is this material and why is it important?
A Waste Hub customer in the flooring industry has established a recycling business in which they annually recover caprolactam from 100 million pounds of post-consumer carpet. The “depoly chips” represent about sixty percent of the processed carpet and was their largest landfilled waste streams. They had invested resources over several years in trying to find a use for it before meeting Waste Hub.
What does the science say?
Waste Hub tested the depoly chips for energy content, composition, and ash content. It turns out that the chips contain a significant amount of calcium carbonate in addition to high energy content. Cement kilns exist to convert calcium carbonate to calcium oxide. Waste Hub was able to sell this material in four months and produce annual net savings for our client of nearly $1M.
What is the business opportunity?
The cement industry is immense and there is a global imperative to reduce its environmental impact. Waste Hub can leverage the knowledge that waste materials containing both high energy content and calcium carbonate are highly appealing as an alternative fuel.