Strategic Materials, Inc. (St. Louis)
Strategic Materials, Inc. (St. Louis) was awarded $50,000 to purchase equipment costing $136,767 that would enable the company to effectively process recovered material from light bulb and lamp recyclers into a marketable product. Strategic Materials is the largest glass processor in the United States, handling 33% of the domestic cullet market. Light bulb glass currently has minimal position in the marketplace. Strategic Materials currently processes some light bulb glass, but with limited success in marketing due to its quality. The proposed equipment will allow removal of aluminum end caps and filaments and size the glass to meet high-end glass user specifications. This will establish viable end-markets for lamp glass collections supported by state and solid waste district projects, particularly those involving mercury-containing lamps that are banned from landfills. Strategic Materials anticipates diverting 6,000 tons from the waste stream annually and creating four new full time jobs with this project.

International Mulch Company (St. Louis)
International Mulch Company (St. Louis) was awarded $40,000 to purchase a press, batch mixer and conveyors costing $75,000 to color and press shredded rubber into various shapes and sizes, primarily to manufacture a rubber landscape timber. International Mulch is a family-run corporation established in 2000 that produces rubber landscaping mulch made from recovered tire buffings and employs 24 people. The company currently sells a rubber landscape timber produced by a Georgia competitor. The rubber timbers are flexible, can be curved, do not rot, and offer additional protection for playgrounds. Based on customer inquiry, the company believes there is a growing market for the product. The company anticipates diverting 140 - 400 tons from landfills annually and creating 2-3 new full time jobs with this project.

Nike IHM (St. Louis)
Nike IHM (St. Louis) was awarded $50,000 to purchase a granulator costing $172,500 to process customer return and startup machine scrap plastics into a usable feedstock. Tetra Plastics, a producer of specialty materials for snow and water skis, became Nike IHM in 1998, teaming with the parent company to develop an airsole conditioning system. This project will enable the company to expand its customer scrap buy-back program of polyester and polyether urethane plastics for which there are no other midwest markets. The scrap plastics can then be used by Nike IHM to manufacture a variety of industrial, automotive, medical and sporting goods products. Nike IHM anticipates diverting 425 tons from the waste stream annually and creating four new full time employee positions with this project.

Missouri Botanical Gardens (St. Louis)
Missouri Botanical Gardens (St. Louis) was awarded $5,400 towards a conveyor system costing $10,825. The conveyor is needed to feed the granulator previously purchased with assistance from the Program used in their "Pots to Planks" recycling program. The Missouri Botanical Gardens collects plastic gardening pots and trays, granulates the plastic on site, provides the material to a local extrusion lumber manufacturer and sells the resulting product as eight foot planks or raised bed kits. The Missouri Botanical Gardens anticipates diverting 50 additional tons from the waste stream annually with this project, doubling the current capacity.

DoCo, Inc. (Ava)
DoCo, Inc. (Ava) was awarded $50,000 towards equipment costing $67,088 to implement a project that will turn scrap wood received at the facility into mulch. DoCo is a sheltered workshop and recycling center that provides employment for 24 developmentally disabled persons. The workshop builds pallets, shreds documents and performs some light factory work. DoCo currently has a contract to collect pallets, skids, crates and other wooden packing material from Copeland Corporation and has found no businesses selling bulk mulch in Douglas, Ozark or Wright Counties. The workshop anticipates diverting 299 tons from the waste stream annually and creating two part-time employee positions with this project.

Recycling Concepts, Inc. (St. Louis)
Recycling Concepts, Inc. (St. Louis) was awarded $50,000 towards the purchase of a plastics granulator costing $119,507. The granulator will process various grades of plastics to sell to end-use mills. Recycling Concepts began as a broker of recyclable materials in 1997 and has since grown into a 32,000 square foot building, providing one of the few multi-plastic recycling services in the St. Louis area. The installation of a granulator will improve process efficiency and provide material that better meets the needs of the company's customer base. Recycling Concepts anticipates diverting 930 tons from the waste stream annually and creating one new full time employee position with this project.

C.H.P. Environmental, Inc. (Verona)
C.H.P. Environmental, Inc. (Verona) was awarded $50,000 to purchase a compost windrow turner costing $90,000. The windrow turner is to be used to enhance and expand the company's capacity to produce high quality compost by diverting food and food production residuals from industrial, commercial and institutional waste streams in Southwest Missouri. C.H.P. Environmental owns and operates a transfer station in Verona, working with its sister company, Advantage Waste, a full service waste hauler. To date, C.H.P. Environmental/Advantage Waste are the only solid waste hauler and transfer station operators in the state that have permitted, sited and constructed a source separated organics composting facility to divert material for composting. The composting facility is located on a leased 20 acre barrow area of the old TandC Landfill, closed by in 1987. The company intends to implement a "double collection" system to pick up separated food waste from current clients. Including ground construction and demolition waste, C.H.P Environmental anticipates diverting 2,500 tons from the waste stream annually and creating one full time employee with this project.

EPC, Inc. (St. Charles)
EPC, Inc. (St. Charles) was awarded $34,800 to purchase a hydraulic press, costing $46,400 to crush printers, network equipment and keyboards, making it economically feasible to de-manufacture them. EPC has been in the personal computer re-marketing business for over 20 years, growing from a two person business to a staff of 130 plus. Sixty percent of the equipment remanufactured at the EPC Earth City warehouse comes from EPC's parent company, CSI Leasing, and is sold at a retail showroom in St. Charles. The balance of the equipment comes from public drops, asset recovery at major corporations and other organizations. Up until now, EPC has been using brokers to take care of equipment that is unusable, but have started de-manufacturing in order to make sure this equipment is handled the way customers want it to be handled. Materials to be recovered from the de-manufactured equipment include aluminum, plastic and steel, as well as usable power supplies circuit boards and motors. EPC anticipates diverting 125 tons from the waste stream annually and creating three full time employee positions with this project.