Recycling and Sustainability in Georgia
Recycling and sustainability are vital sectors in Georgia’s progressive energy ecosystem. Valuable post-consumer resources from within the state’s borders and around the country are being recycled and delivered back to the user pool instead of going to landfills. For example, Atlanta-based Nexus Fuels converts waste plastics into virgin plastics and high-grade fuels, and several other Georgia businesses are among the largest glass and aluminum recyclers in North America and beyond.
Georgia also is a leader in sustainability through organizations like Drawdown Georgia that seek to achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions in the state and Southface Institute, which is focused on creating a regenerative economy.
The Center of Innovation Energy Technology connects businesses to valuable recycling and sustainability research, resources and experts to make a difference in today’s world.
RECYCLING
Georgia companies are paving the path of recycling innovation, from processing post-consumer resources like glass, plastic, and paper to transforming them into outdoor furniture, carpet, drywall, packaging, and more. The Georgia Center of Innovation is available to help companies at all stages of business development.
Did you know?
- One-third of all plastic beverage containers recycled in North America end up in Georgia and are turned into carpet (mainly in northwest Georgia).
- Georgia’s Paper Industry recycles almost 8 percent of all the paper consumed in the United States.
- More than 120 Georgia businesses use recovered materials to manufacture a variety of new consumer products.
Novelis, the world’s largest recycler of aluminum and producer of flat-rolled aluminum products, employs approximately 1,000 Georgia residents at a recycling and manufacturing facility in Greensboro, its continental headquarters in Atlanta, and a research and development facility in Kennesaw. The company strives to become the world’s first mine-free aluminum rolling company in the near future by using only recycled material. It takes 90 percent less energy to recycle aluminum cans versus making them from virgin aluminum and requires a mere 60 days to recycle a used beverage can, make a new one, and get it back on grocery shelves. Georgia’s aluminum industry employs 20,000, representing $1.27 billion in economic impact, according to the Georgia Recycling Commission.
Strategic Materials, Inc. began recycling glass in 1896 as the Bassichis Company and is now the biggest glass recycler in North America with 40 locations across America, including facilities in College Park and Atlanta, Georgia. Wherever there’s glass (bottle, plate, automotive, colored, pharmaceutical, soda lime, and borosilicate), chances are Strategic Materials has the capability to process and supply it to manufacturers of containers, fiberglass, highway beads, glass abrasives, decorative glass, glass fillers, and other specialty glass. Glass is infinitely recyclable and requires only 30 days to recycle, melt, remake into containers and have it back on shelves.
Georgia’s paper industry recycles nearly 8 percent of all the paper consumed in the United States due to the presence of companies like Greif, a global manufacturer of industrial and paper packaging with a location in Austell, Georgia. This plant recycles consumer and post-industrial paper to create new paper used for consumer packaging and drywall. There are seven paper mills in Georgia that use only recycled paper, and cardboard to create new paper products.
Not only are used aluminum, glass and paper finding new life in Georgia, approximately one-third of all plastic beverage containers recycled in North America end up in the state with much of the recycled product turned into carpet, primarily in northwest Georgia. Headquartered in Dalton, Shaw Industries Group, Inc. even recycles used carpet to manufacture new carpet products.
Based in south central Georgia, SoPoly manufactures outdoor Adirondack chairs, chaise lounges, dining sets, and side tables that are weather- and fade-resistant and made from 100 percent recycled plastic. Located in Eastman, the company sold its first chair in April 2021 and now has a network of more 300 dealers in 16 states and three countries, resulting in a recent announcement that a SoPoly will be investing $5 million to expand manufacturing capacity and add 200 jobs.
Meanwhile, the Georgia Recycling Coalition (GRC) is bringing all the players together. From local governments, military bases, business, and colleges to recycling industry representatives, waste and recycling haulers, environmental educators, and more. The nonprofit organization exists to complement and coordinate activities related to recycling, foster communications, and promote and enhance waste reduction and recycling programs throughout Georgia. GRC facilitates the annual statewide observance of the America Recycles Day program in partnership with Keep Georgia Beautiful. The organization also helps make local events a reality during International Compost Awareness Week, organizes an annual conference and trade show, and hosts workshops, training seminars and other events related to waste reduction and recycling.
RECYCLING RESOURCES
SUSTAINABILITY
Georgia also has made the thoughtful use of resources a major priority. Drawdown Georgia is accelerating Georgia’s progress toward net zero greenhouse gas emissions through cutting carbon impact by at least one-third by 2030. Solutions proposed are divided into five main categories: electricity, buildings and materials, food and agriculture, land sinks (forests, grasslands and wetlands), and transportation.
With leadership from the Ray C. Anderson Foundation, the Drawdown Georgia road map was created by a working group of academic partners. Community and business leaders, policy makers, advocates, innovators, entrepreneurs, and municipal officials are creating and implementing sustainability solutions that are tailor made for Georgia’s unique economic, social, and natural resources. The goal is to come together from across multiple social, geographic and political perspectives to make it happen.
For more than 40 years, the nonprofit organization Southface Institute has been a leader in the research, design, and implementation of a regenerative economy, one that gives back more than it uses. Based in Atlanta, Southface works in collaboration with a network of partner nonprofits, businesses, government agencies, universities, and technical experts to promote sustainable homes, workplaces, and communities. This happens through education, research, advocacy, and technical assistance.
In addition, Georgia Tech Strategic Energy Institute (SEI Home | Research (gatech.edu) conducts systems-based applied research and assessments that address critical energy, water and health challenges locally and beyond.
SUSTAINABILITY RESOURCES
Aurubis, based in Hamburg, Germany, is building the first secondary smelter for multi-metal recycling in the U.S. in Augusta, Georgia, with construction starting in summer 2022 and commissioning planned for the first half of 2024. The plant will be carbon neutral and have the capacity for processing up to 90,000 tons of complex recycling materials (e.g., circuit boards, copper cable and more) resulting in creating 35,000 tons of blister copper annually. Aurubis plans to further process the intermediate products into various industrial and precious metals utilizing its international smelter network.
Bioplastics supplier NANTRenewables, based in Alabama and a subsidiary of NantWorks, will invest up to $29 million to build a manufacturing facility at SeaPoint Industrial Terminal Complex in Savannah, creating 134 manufacturing jobs with hiring beginning in 2022. NANTRenewables uses a renewable and self-generating biogenic mineral to produce biodegradable, daily-use products like plates, straws, cutlery, trays and cups. The company also provides sustainable, value-added products to several other companies within the food, agriculture and pharmaceutical industries.
Ascend Elements, a lithium-ion battery recycling and engineered materials startup, will invest $43 million to open its first commercial-scale battery recycling plant in an existing 154,000-square-foot facility in Covington, Georgia. The processing plant will be the largest of its kind in North America when fully operational in August 2022 and have the capacity to process 30,000 metric tons of discarded lithium-ion batteries and scrap annually, the equivalent of 70,000 vehicle batteries per year. The company’s innovative recycling process will return battery-grade lithium, cobalt and nickel back into the battery supply chain.
Plug Power Inc. is building a green hydrogen plant in Camden County, Georgia, that will produce 15 tons of liquid green hydrogen per day using 100 percent renewable energy and serve customers in the southeastern U.S. upon completion by the end of 2022. Plug Power is helping build the hydrogen economy as a leading provider of comprehensive hydrogen fuel cell solutions. The company’s technology powers electric motors with hydrogen fuel cells amid an ongoing paradigm shift in the power, energy and transportation industries to address climate change and energy security. Plug Power is the largest buyer of liquid hydrogen globally and has built more hydrogen refueling stations than any other company in the world.