By Matt Tomsic
mtomsic@scbiznews.com
Published Oct. 11, 2012
A North Carolina-based company is opening a composting facility in Berkeley County and expects to hire up to 25 people, officials announced today.
McGill Environmental Systems takes plastics, paper, cardboard, food waste, poultry and hog sludge and turns those waste products into compost, said Sean Fallon, an account manager with McGill. The company will also use yard waste that Berkeley County collects at its composting facility, which is located at the Berkeley County landfill. The county owns the land, but the company will own its building, which is expected to be finished by the end of 2013.
The company has been looking for sites throughout South Carolina for a number of years, said Lynn Lucas, who handles McGill’s project development. Lucas wouldn’t name the other locations, but said McGill began looking at Berkeley County after it released a request for proposals for a business that could partner with its landfill.
“This group in Berkeley County has really thought about what they need and what commercial entities need to be highly profitable,” Lucas said.
Dan Davis, chairman of Berkeley County Council, said the county has been looking to attract new technology that can convert waste streams into usable products.
“I’m sure some of you weren’t expecting to come here and talk about garbage and trash,” Davis said during the news conference.
Berkeley County’s first venture was a methane gas plant that opened about a year ago. The plant converts methane gas into electricity that can be used to power about 1,500 homes.
“That success in the methane operation has led to looking at other things,” Davis said. “Everything gets used someway somehow.”
McGill represents the second venture, Davis said, and the county is working with other companies to open a biodiesel facility and to build an algae operation at the landfill.
Davis, Lucas and Fallon noted Berkeley County is one of the few places in the country that is trying to pair its waste streams and landfills with new technologies and businesses.
“You’ll be hearing more about that,” Davis said.
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