Got Surplus? Find a Willing Buyer
The Resource Exchange Network for Eliminating Waste has long helped businesses and local governments in Texas to find buyers for surplus materials. Now, RENEW has started to operate on a multi-state basis.
RENEW can help recycle industrial and hazardous waste
The Resource Exchange Network for Eliminating Waste has long helped businesses and local governments in Texas to find buyers for surplus materials. Now, RENEW has started to operate on a multi-state basis, which means even more opportunities for recycling materials that might otherwise end up in the trash heap.
Shoppers on eBay might be looking for an antique. Users of Craigslist could be in the market for a used computer. On RENEW, don't be surprised to find commodities that could fill a boxcar.
The Resource Exchange Network for Eliminating Waste is a free marketing channel for industries, businesses, and governmental authorities looking to sell—or buy—surplus materials, byproducts, and waste. Through the network, entities needing to sell such materials can link up with facilities wanting to buy the very same thing.
The waste exchange generates financial benefits for the participating companies and keeps the surplus materials, some of which are hazardous, from being disposed of in landfills.
One recent RENEW listing was for 10 tons of compound natural rubber available from a boot manufacturer. Suggested use: as a fuel additive or blender. Another company advertised 2,000 gallons a week of product mixtures reclaimed from cans crushed for aluminum recycling. Suggested use: for composting operations.
In fiscal 2007, there were 18 exchanges made through RENEW, representing 11,382 tons of surplus materials. Those transactions allowed companies with surplus commodities to avoid $2.1 million in landfill disposal costs and to earn $1.6 million through the sales.
Prices on the products are determined by the private parties. Since RENEW began in 1988, more than 469,610 tons of materials have been exchanged.
While the TCEQ has managed the waste exchange since its inception, a major shift occurred in the fall of 2007. Maintenance of the listings and the online catalog transferred to the Southwest Network for Zero Waste, which is part of the University of Texas System. An Environmental Protection Agency grant supplied the funding.
At the same time, RENEW expanded to encompass all the states in EPA's Region 6. Joining Texas are New Mexico, Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Louisiana.
The new regional exchange network is expected to draw more participants as all five states engage in promoting RENEW. Companies seeking or selling surplus materials are now able to enter their listings onto the database and see the results posted almost immediately.
For more information, go to www.renewtx.org.
