Both Granger and Friedland Industries are in the business of recycling what the rest of us don’t want anymore. Friedland has basically been “recycling” since its founding in 1886, and Granger has developed many new recycling programs over the past few decades.

Granger

“Granger is more than just the people who pick up your trash,” CEO Keith Granger said in a statement. “We turn your waste into a valuable resource. We’re an environmental management services firm responsible for the recovery of resources through recycling, composting, disposal and landfill gas conversion into renewable green energy.”

“By the end of this year, all of our power from the landfill will be going to the Lansing Board of Water & Light, due to an expansion we’re doing now,” said Granger. “We’re adding new generators and we’ve built an addition to the plant. It will continue to expand as the landfill volumes increase. By the end of the year we’ll be producing 6.4 megawatts of energy, enough to supply more than 4,000 average-sized households. As we are able to retrieve and harvest materials through different technologies, we will ultimately be able to produce 12 megawatts from this one facility.”

Granger has its own team of engineers working on those technologies and also manages energy production from other landfills around the country. All of these projects generated over 140,000 megawatt hours of energy in 2005. According to Granger, this is the equivalent of more than 4.3 million barrels of oil, which powers almost 13,000 homes and heats another 60,000.

Also, Granger opened the first 24-hour, local drop-off recycling site in 1989, accepting products such as cardboard, boxboard, magazines, glass, newspaper, tin, aluminum and some types of plastic containers.

“The site takes in 50 to 70 tons of recycling on an daily basis,” said Steve Reed, COO of waste services. “We then broker it to end users or manufacturing plants that will use it to make something new.”

Granger is also a founding sponsor of the Lansing Go Green! Initiative, as well as Meridian Township’s Green Stars Program and Delta Township’s Greener Delta event.

A new issue the company is working on, along with other organizations, is enacting legislation that would allow yard waste to be used for energy production. Currently, yard waste is not permitted in landfills.

“The legislation would allow for an exemption for yard waste to go to the landfill to meet energy needs,” said Tonya Olson, director of governmental and public relations for Granger. “This particular issue is of great interest to us. There are currently 20 [landfill energy] projects in Michigan, and we have six of them. There are at least 12 more that could be developed by allowing yard waste in."

“Education about waste recycling options is more critical than ever,” Granger added. “In 2006, an impressive 40.8 million pounds of materials were recycled through Granger. The majority of these items were collected from commercial sources throughout Greater Lansing. The remaining 45 percent was generated primarily from residential sources, either at drop-off locations or from street-side bins.”

Friedland Industries, Inc.

“We’re in the scrap processing business, which in the 1980s and ‘90s became known as recycling,” said Lawrence A. Bass, president of Friedland. “This type of business has been in this country since the Revolutionary War when they were melting pots and pans to make bullets at Paul Revere’s foundry. It was just [recently] that it became popular [as a green activity].”

“Our industry, and specifically Friedland, accepts materials that go back to the manufacturing process,” said Randolph Rifkin, executive vice president. “We don’t accept products that can’t be recycled.”

“We melt products to very rigid specification for steel mills, paper mills, aluminum mills or copper mills, and then they are ultimately made into something new,” Bass explained.

Bass is married to one of founder David Friedland’s descendents, so it is considered a family business. Bass and Rifkin took over the company in the 1980s.

“The business has evolved and changed over the years,” said Rifkin. “It’s very sophisticated. It’s a high-technology business, as are all of the surviving scrap processors.”

Friedland buys scrap from both companies and individuals.

“The customers include the automotive industry, parts manufacturers, whatever industry is left in the area,” Bass noted. “We also buy from small businesses and the public. You could, for example, bring your newspapers down here, or it could be anything from a guy cleaning out his garage or tearing out a bathroom. We take plumbing fixtures, sinks, faucets and the copper tubing that lines the faucets. We pay for everything that comes in here.”

As to how the company actually processes the scrap materials when they come in, Bass explained, “We cut it, bale it, shred it and shear it. There are several different processes, depending on the type of materials they are. There are over 200 different paper grades, depending on color, fiber and so forth. In the case of metals, it’s separated by alloy content and processed, baled or packed to specification for the consuming mill.”

As to what materials are made from the recycled metals, Bass noted it can be anything from automobiles, wheels, refrigerators, to briefcase clasps. “New copper wire will be made out of old copper wire, new aluminum cans will be made out of old aluminum cans,” he said.

Recycling also saves energy.

“When you use 100 percent scrap iron to make new steel, it saves literally 76 percent of the energy that it takes to make new steel from the old way of doing it,” Bass explained. “It’s about the same for paper, not to mention you save the trees.”

Friedland also works with Granger to keep additional recyclable materials out of its landfills.

“We buy scrap out of their landfills,” Bass stated. “We have a container out there that Granger fills with materials that can be recycled, but they don’t handle, and then it comes over here to be processed.”

“We provide a valuable service to the community,” Rifkin added. “We’re a local, union company; we’re involved in a lot of community activities and we participate in all of the environmental green efforts that the city puts forth.”