LEWISTON — The new owners of construction and demolition debris processor KTI Bio Fuels hope to boost the facility’s efficiency.
New York-based ReEnergy Holdings LLC announced Friday it purchased the Plourde Parkway-based processor from Casella Solid Waste for an undisclosed amount.
The facility takes in wood, concrete, metal and other nonhazardous refuse from demolition and construction projects. Materials are sorted, and wood and other flammable materials are sent to energy generation plants.
“At our other facilities, we’ve been able to increase recycling rates,” said Greg Leahey, senior vice president of asset management for ReEnergy. “If they were able to get five pounds of recycling out of 10 pounds of material, we think we can get seven pounds out of 10 pounds. That’s just an example, but we’ve done that at the other facilities we’ve taken over.”
The renewable energy company currently owns and operates Maine biomass-to-energy facilities in Stratton, Livermore Falls, Fort Fairfield and Ashland. These facilities burn waste materials to create electricity.
The KTI facility becomes part of ReEnergy’s larger network. In addition to the four Maine generators, the company operates five others in New York, Connecticut and North Carolina.
The company also operates processing facilities similar to the KTI plant in Epping and Salem, N.H., and in Roxbury, Mass.
“In terms of volumes coming in, we need to determine how this will integrate with our three other processing facilities,” said Chief Commercial Officer Tom Beck. “That will be a longer-term process of evaluating how do we best flow material, how can we increase recycling levels and how do we minimize what we have to dispose of.”
Beck said the majority of KTI’s staff will become ReEnergy employees. KTI employed 27 people.
Lewiston City Administrator Ed Barrett said the change should have no impact on Casella’s recycling operation. Casella is currently working to convert the city’s old recycling storage shed into an automated facility to sort recycling.
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