Group Buys Old Box Board Site for Recycling Venture

By Linda N. Weller, The Telegraph, Alton, Ill.

Mar. 15–ALTON — An investment group recently purchased the former Alton Box Board site and plans to open a solid waste recycling operation and draw other ventures there, perhaps starting late this year. “We are excited to proceed with the development of the site for industrial purposes and in bringing employment and business activity back to the former industrial corridor of Alton,” attorney Raymond S. Stillwell, president of Green Investment Group Inc., said in a news release. “Considerable effort has been expended not only in the acquisition of the site, but also in obtaining the interest of several businesses who desire the amenities of the location.”

Stillwell said the company plans to use as much of the buildings and land as possible for businesses producing “various alternative energy sources, such as ethanol and biodiesel and recycling of various solid and liquid waste streams.

Stillwell plans to open a WastAway-brand recycling plant. The WastAway process converts garbage into a medium for growing plants and making synthetic building materials.

“I hope we can be fully operational by the end of the year,” he said.

Nearly a year ago, Stillwell announced he was going to start the operation at Alton Steel Inc., 5 Cut St. At that time, he was the attorney and investor in the start-up company.

However, Stillwell sold his shares in Alton Steel in October and repaid the city for $4,187 it spent for an engineering survey of the steel property.

Green Investment bought the 240-acre Box Board property from Smurfit-Stone Container Corp. of St. Louis on Feb. 14. Stillwell said financing came from Meridian Bank, The Bank of Calhoun County and Carrollton Bank and Trust.

Alper Services LLC, a Chicago-based insurance company that specializes in large industrial plants, provided insurance and risk management services.

“The site has a lot of industrial infrastructure already in place,” Stillwell said, including water wells and wastewater treatment facilities. “It has very good rail access and — for longer-term investment — good access to the river.”

The site is south of Alton Steel and has 400,000 square feet of buildings, including a 25,000-square-foot office building, he said. Stillwell said he is investigating other types of recycling or alternative energy businesses to bring to the site.

“Within a year, we hope to have it all committed to the individual activities” on the property, he said.

The WastAway process involves putting household garbage in pressurized, 350-degree Fahrenheit heat to sanitize and eliminate odors. The material is ground and shredded, with ferrous-containing materials sorted out for scrap metal recycling.

In about 20 minutes, the resulting product, “Fluff,” is ready. Fluff is a clean material similar to wood pulp but resembles shredded pine bark mulch. It is odorless, with high levels of moisture and micro-nutrients, and is added to soil or used as a plant-growing medium.

WastAway Services LLC of McMinnville, Tenn., which supplies the equipment, also says Fluff is used to manufacture composite timbers, fencing, park benches, planters and waste cans. It is being tested as a biofuel.

The company says garbage at the plants does not require preprocessing or sorting, as do other recycling processes. Also, nothing goes to a landfill as in the “clean and dirty MERFS (material recovery facilities)” that cities investigated using more than a decade ago.

Stillwell said the investment group was formed to acquire the property but declined to say who else is involved in the venture. He said the group’s name represents its “ecological focus, alternative energy and recycling.

“There is no one involved named Green,” he said.

He said another advantage to the property is that it apparently will not need remediation of soil pollutants that would have been necessary on the Alton Steel site, the former location of Laclede Steel.

“This site does not have the degree of environmental challenge,” he said, because it was used for creating paperboard and box board boxes and other packaging.

“I am going to register this site in the voluntary program with the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency, and what remediation we cooperatively agree to do, I will pursue. There is no required action.”

Stillwell said the “siting process started some time ago.”

“We will continue to work with him to reclaim that brownfield,” said Phil Roggio, Alton director of development and housing. “We have not gotten in great detail with him yet. We always are trying to reclaim old industrial properties” to bring back jobs.

Roggio said the city awaits Stillwell’s more detailed plans.

The news release says Mayor Don Sandidge welcomes news of the land purchase because “the redevelopment of part of the industrial corridor of Alton by Green Investment Group demonstrates the viability of the Alton area as a force in economic development.

“The city looks forward to working with Ray Stillwell and the prospective businesses to ensure their success as employers and supporters of the community as a whole,” it says.

The City Council will have to OK the site plans; the IEPA also must approve them before issuing a permit.

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