[USCC] private/public compost site arrangements

Fri Jan 11 14:46:50 CST 2008

 Hi Brenda,
I was the Project Manager for the Baltimore City Composting Facility (www.orgro.cc) until March of this past year. I left to start my own consulting business. The BCCF has a public/private contract with the City of Baltimore. The contract between Veolia Water North America (VWNA) and the City is in parallel with a contract between VWNA and the Northeast Maryland Waste Disposal Authority (www.nmwda.org), which also administrates the contract between VWNA and the City. The is facility, owned and operated by Veolia Water North America (www.veoliawaterna.com) The facility receives and processes up to 240 wet tons @ approx. 21% solids, per day, for which there is? an operating fee. The fee basis is overly complex with a minimum and maximum tonnage per month and is based on 1.) Tons per day, 2.) Tons per month, 3.) Average % dry solids per month, 4.) Average pH per month, 5.) An additional process fee for four consecutive days with solids below 18% -? and the list goes on with many
  more adjusters. VWNA's Marketing contract provides for a revenue share after meeting a gross dollar revenue thresh hold. Sales above the thresh hold are shared wit the City at $0.50 on the dollar. The facility makes a payment to the City after an audited, fiscal year end analysis. I joined Veolia in 1999 and the facility achieved the payment thresh hold in 2000 for the first time since the plant opened in 1987. A payment has been made to the City every year since that time. Additionally, the payment amount to the City increased every year until it plateaued in 2005. The plateau was based largely on market conditions (new, low price competitor entrant).

There are many business philosophies/models in the composting industry and unfortunately, most of them base their business plan on the tip/process fee as being their revenue center. At Baltimore, I reorganized our business paradigm to plug in compost sales as our revenue center and change our operating practices from that of a processing facility to that of a product manufacturing facility. As it (predictably) turned out, in addition to sharing revenue with the City, compost sales accounted for greater than 80% of our total margin in the operating P&L. 

An excellent resource you may want to contact is the Institute for Public Private Partnerships, Inc. (www.IP3.org), also located in Washington, DC:
The Institute for
                                Public-Private Partnerships, Inc. (IP3)
1010 Wisconsin Avenue, N.W.
Suite
                                250 
Washington, D.C. 20007
Voice: (202) 466-8930
Fax: (202)
                                466-8934

Please get in touch with me directly with any questions or additional information.

David Hill
CycleLogic Environmental Marketing and Consultation
4613 Roxbury Drive
Bethesda, MD 20814
Office/Fax (301) 493-5180
Cell (240) 393-0492

-----Original Message-----
From: Brenda Platt <bplatt at ilsr.org>
To: compost at mailman.cloudnet.com
Sent: Wed, 9 Jan 2008 3:06 pm
Subject: [USCC] private/public compost site arrangements

Can anyone share some examples of private/public compost facility
arrangements?  Are there any with shared revenue arrangements?  Any
good examples of county/municipalities providing the land? What do
they get in return?  Nature of arrangements? etc.

ILSR will share this info with the Carroll County Environmental
Advisory Council (MD).  ILSR is advocating for composting in Carroll
and Frederick Counties, MD, in lieu of a planned waste incinerator.
For what it is worth, we are not paid consultants.

Thanks in advance for any help.

Cheers,

Brenda

-- 
Brenda Platt
Institute for Local Self-Reliance
927 15th Street, NW, 4th Fl
Washington, DC  20005
202-898-1610 ext. 230
www.ilsr.org
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