Reynolds County Sheltered Workshop (Bunker) was awarded $4,770 towards an $8,670 project to assess the workshop's current products, explore new product development, and identify sources of recovered wood that can be used to produce products. The workshop currently makes a variety of decorative wood items, wood furniture and yard items using wood recovered from Peerless Landfill. Until recently, wood was obtained from the landfill at no cost, but the wood is now available only for cost.

Customix Corporation (Marchfield) was awarded $5,000 towards an $8,000 project to evaluate new marketing channels for its products. Customix currently processes approximately three tons of food grade sunflower by-products from the ConAgra company and produces a wild bird seed mixture. Seeds unsuitable for the bird seed mixture are ground and blended into livestock feed mixtures. Customix is increasing its processing capacity and this project is designed to help the company facilitate product distribution to a greater number of buyers.

Legacy Engineering, LLC. (Newburg) was awarded $5,800 towards a project costing $16,400 to conduct a market assessment and explore the manufacturing and testing requirements for a wall constructed with its "tire-binder" and used tires. Previously awarded technical assistance to this company demonstrated the technical feasibility and practicality of building retaining type walls with this product. This project intends to help the company determine whether the product can be feasibly made and marketed.

Missouri Steel Casting (Joplin) was awarded $2,500 towards a $5,000 project to explore end uses for waste foundry sand. Missouri Steel Casting is currently able to reuse approximately 60% of the sand needed for its molding processes and an area cement company has accepted some of the sand at a cost to Missouri Steel Casting. Approximately 2,500 tons of waste sand has accumulated on the business' property, however, and continues to generate nearly 400 tons of waste sand each month. This project intends to research additional uses for the waste sand.

Top of the Ozarks Resource Conservation and Development (Houston) was awarded $3,000 towards a $10,000 project to evaluate the feasibility of establishing a rendering plant along the Highway 60/63 corridor and assess possible end products that might be created at a rendering facility in the region. Top of the Ozarks RCandD is a non-profit group that serves a ten county region in South Central Missouri, assisting communities with concerns that focus on natural resource issues. This project intends to identify potential marketable products, estimate available raw material amounts and determine requirements for this type of industry.

Joseph Gallo Company (Valley Park) was awarded $6,000, in two phases, towards an $11,500 project to determine whether its new "Ladder Caddy" product could be made from recovered rubber and to develop a marketing plan for the product. "Ladder Caddy" is currently designed to be made from injected plastics, but the business believes using recovered materials could increase its marketability. Joseph Gallo Company is a startup venture that proposes to create as many as ten new jobs within two years of introduction.

Brake Parts, Inc. (Cuba) was awarded $2,500 towards a $12,925 project to explore the feasibility of manufacturing wear pads or other products from waste brake pad grinding produced in the company's current operations. At present time, the company produces over 20 tons of the grindings each month. The waste material is so light, it is easily airborne and this has hindered the company's efforts to develop a new product using the waste material. The proposed project will focus on identifying candidate wear pad applications, determining product requirements, and initial testing of that process.

Young's Innovations (Springfield) was awarded $2,500 towards a $5,000 project to perform market research and product analysis for an invention called "The Status Indicator." The product is a small plastic item that indicates an object's status or position by using a slide tab that will identify the status of a dishwasher, RV antenna or other item by displaying up/down, on/off, clean/dirty, etc. The Status Indicator will be made out of 100% recycled polystyrene. The proposed project will focus on customer and distribution research.

A and N Metal, LLC. (St. James) was awarded $4,380 towards a $9,380 project to determine the feasibility of replacing polystyrene and urethane with waste paper as insulation in a new design for industrial coolers. The proposed project will focus on sourcing materials, technical analysis of materials, and application analysis to determine the viability of using paper insulation in the manufacturing of industrial coolers.

Gardiner Machine Co. (Hillsboro) was awarded $4,320 towards a $9,510 project to design and develop a new packaging support product, establish a manufacturing process using recycled raw materials and providing marketing assistance to identify additional markets for the packaging supports. The supports would be used primarily in shipping athletic gear produced by the company, but additional markets would be sought. The company also has idle machinery they believe could be capable of producing the supports.

Hi-Tech Charities (HTC) (St. Louis) was awarded $2,960 towards a $5,710 project to conduct a general business evaluation, explore potential markets and investigate additional recycling opportunities for the organization's current computer recycling operations. HTC is a non-profit organization devoted to community outreach that collects computers for recycling and remanufacturing.

Poultry Producers of Missouri (statewide) was awarded $22,000 to conduct a feasibility study to evaluate the potential of burning poultry litter, which has a relatively high BTU value, to extract energy to produce heat for use on the sites of the poultry farms. The project then intends to evaluate the feasibility of granulating the resulting ash to be
packaged and marketed as a fertilizer.

Ryan Enterprises (Fulton) was awarded $6,000 towards an $11,000 project to conduct a feasibility study for a potential plastic fence post manufacturing facility. Initial investigations have led the business to believe that a fence post made from recycled plastic would have characteristics valuable to fence construction. The proposed project would examine technical feasibility and include a market assessment and business overview.

Premium Standard Farms (Milan) was awarded $10,000 towards a $16,000 project to evaluate potential uses for waste wood shavings mixed with manure that has been used as bedding in the semi-trailer trucks that transport pigs to its packing house. Approximately 46 such trucks arrive daily carrying 180 pigs per load and creating approximately 1,300 tons of the waste chips each year. Currently, this waste stream is landfilled. The proposed project intends to determine the marketability of the waste material, including its nutrient value and potential products such as compost, soil ammendments or fuel sources that could be produced; and review the technologies available to assist PSF in the recovery of the waste material, including potential costs.

Schafly Bottleworks (St. Louis) was awarded $4,720 towards a $9,400 project to analyze by-products produced at Saint Louis Brewery, Inc., explore potential markets for the company's waste organics, and identify the processes and equipment needed to recover the material. Currently, between ten and fifteen yards of by-products are created at the brewery each week, including spent grains, precipitated proteins, spent hops, diatomaceous earth and brewer's yeast.