IBAgreen: Good for the Environment, Great for Business

The most sustainable ideas often emerge from unexpected places. IBAgreen (PIEX) found theirs in the trash. A too plentiful resource, waste is often seen as among the steepest challenges facing the environment. IBAgreen Green sees it as a business opportunity.

The U.S. produces about 245 million tons of garbage, or roughly 4.5 pounds per person a day. That amount of trash adds up quickly and we only have so many places to put it. The majority of that waste is sent to landfills where about 34 percent is recovered and recycled or composted, 54 percent is buried, and about 12 percent is turned to energy through incineration. IBAgreen is primarily concerned with the incineration aspect, specifically, making the process greener and creating other products from the ash while diminishing the amount of trash in the landfill.

Approximately 28 million tons of solid waste is incinerated annually, effectively reducing the volume to about 10 percent of its size. While the process creates more space for landfills, the remaining 2.8 million tons of material, known as Incinerated Bottom Ash (IBA), poses a challenge for landfills and waste-to-energy plants. The toxic nature of the byproduct gives landfills few storing options and can lead to IBA seeping into the surrounding environment.

IBAgreen discovered a way to rectify the storage deficiencies and create useful products in the process .With its patented proprietary process IBAgreen has the capacity to turn toxic ash into commercially viable construction products like a superior alternative to Portland cement, fluidized thermal backfill for roads, and precast concrete products. The nanotechnology allows the concrete products to be manufactured in such a way that they are not permeable to water or moisture, which is the chief factor for deterioration of the nation’s infrastructure, such as roads, bridges and buildings

Products with an extended lifespan help to protect the resources normally employed in their creation, but that’s only the star of how the products can be used to help the environment. By removing the IBA from the landfills, it creates more space but most importantly, it lifts the toxic burden out of landfills who have proved incapable of managing the byproduct. 85 percent of the landfills are leaking. In large quantities IBA heats up and burns through the liners. If IBAgreen removed it, there would more space for other trash and the surrounding area and ground water would be safer. The nanotechnology fundamentally changes the molecular structure of the bottom ash to neutralize toxins and make the materials safe for reuse.

Not only is this plan positive for the environment, but it’s a profitable business strategy that allows the company to make money on either end of it plan. They are receiving funds for minimizing the trash load as well as on the other end for the products they create from it. Furthermore, there appears to be no end in sight. So long as people continue to produce trash, and roads and buildings need to be created or maintained there will always be a demand for what IBAgreen process and product.