Green and Growing

An affinity for recycling and cleaner technologies gives North Carolina’s Stanley Environmental Solutions a profit punch

What’s in a name? Plenty, in the case of Stanley Environmental Solutions Inc., a company that’s repositioned itself for growth and boosted revenue by putting a modern spin on the old adage, “Waste not, want not.”

An ecological mindset informs virtually all operations at the Stanley, N.C.-based company, which is a major regional player in grease-trap service, pumping seven million gallons a year. Formerly known as Stanley Septic Services, the company dewaters grease and septic waste, then land-applies the remaining liquid, which has proven to be an efficient and environmentally sound practice.

The company then mixes the filtered cake with food and other waste products to make 15,000 to 20,000 tons of compost annually, which it sells to farmers and landscapers under the name Earth Farms Organics. Moreover, Stanley is building a facility that will remove usable brown oil from grease-trap waste. And it’s increasingly promoting the installation of innovative, more eco-friendly pretreatment units in septic systems, says Jim Lanier, president and majority partner.

SAY WHAT YOU DO

“About two years ago, we changed the name of the company because it not only sounded more professional, but it reflected our broader range of services,” Lanier says. “The name creates a totally different perception than Stanley Septic Services.

“These days, everyone wants to know where waste is going,” he adds. “We’ve seen a groundswell of interest in the environment from both commercial and residential customers. People are definitely more environmentally aware … we feel it’s very important that we replenish the Earth we’re blessed with, and put back what we take from it.”

The scope of Stanley’s business is a far cry from the company founded in 1971 by Lanier’s father, William, who started out with a diaphragm pump and a homemade tank mounted on a 1956 Ford truck. Today, the company’s geographic range includes both North and South Carolina. Grease trap pumping generates about 40 percent of the company’s business volume, while septic tank pumping and septic system installations each chip in roughly another 30 percent.

The company’s fleet of equipment has grown dramatically. It now includes a 1993 International with a 2,500-gallon steel tank; a 1997 Ford with a 3,500-gallon steel tank; and several trucks — Peterbilt, Freightliner, Kenworth rigs — with aluminum tanks from Progress Tank and built out by Advance Pump & Equipment Inc. The company also has a 6,000-gallon tanker trailer, also built by Advance Pump & Equipment.

DISPOSAL SOLUTIONS

Because no area treatment plants would accept grease and septic waste, Stanley began land-applying it about 30 years ago on a 110-acre farm the company owns outside of town. But regulations prohibited the company from applying more than 50,000 gallons per acre per year, which posed a problem as the company grew and volume increased.

The solution? Two 40-yard dewatering boxes, one made by Aqua-Zyme Disposal Systems Inc. and the other by BakerCorp. The units process about 40,000 to 60,000 gallons of waste per day.

“We started using dewatering boxes six years ago, and they’ve increased our (land-application) capacity to 198,000 gallons per acre per year,” Lanier explains. “Applying clear water substantially increases our ability to keep the farm viable for land application.”

To handle more distant accounts as the company expands geographically, as well as reduce fuel costs and vehicle wear-and-tear, Stanley recently invested in a third dewatering box in Durham, located 60 miles away. Lanier expects to be processing about 40,000 gallons per day within a year. Dewatered waste from that unit, made by Haul-A-Day Inc. Dewatering Systems by Aqua Ben Corp., goes directly into the local sewer system, for which Stanley is charged a per-gallon fee, as measured by a flow meter.

But while dewatering solved one problem, it created another. The filtered cake required disposal at a local landfill — at $57 a ton. “It didn’t take long to figure out that wasn’t going to work,” Lanier says. It was then that a state official recommended that Stanley consider composting its waste.

COMPOSTING 101

Getting into the composting business involved a learning curve (see sidebar above), as well as a $1.2 million investment in a facility. Lanier says he took several classes at North Carolina State University, as well as attended seminars at events including the Pumper & Cleaner Environmental Expo International.

The effort has been worthwhile, as composting provides the company with several key benefits, not the least of which is a new revenue stream, generated from compost sales and the tipping fees clients pay Stanley to pick up their waste.

“Those fees help offset the operating costs of the composting facility,” Lanier says. In addition, composting offsets the tipping fees Stanley would otherwise pay to dispose of waste that’s now being recycled, not to mention preserves valuable landfill capacity.

The composting process begins by mixing the dewatered cake with other waste streams – such as food, wood chips and cotton waste from textile industries — in a 60- by 40-foot concrete-lined pit. A rubber-tire loader is used to blend the food and other waste streams; the facility receives three tractor-trailer loads a day, or 60 tons.

The resulting mixture is placed in windrows about 6 or 7 feet tall, 100 yards long and 8 feet wide. During a 90- to 120-day period, workers use a windrow-turning machine to turn the windrows an average of twice a week. They also take daily temperature readings, one every 25 feet; the goal is to keep the windrows at a minimum temperature of 131 degrees F, which typically takes about two weeks to achieve.

The heat, which kills pathogens and any weed seeds, is generated by a “recipe” that requires a certain ratio of carbon (from the wood chips) and nitrogen (from the grease and septic waste). The state requires the temperatures to be logged, and mature compost samples must be submitted quarterly for testing.

When the compost is fully “cooked,” workers use a front-end loader to scoop it and screen it on a 3/8-inch screener. Then it’s either packaged in 50-pound bags — the company recently invested in an automated bagging machine — or sold in bulk. Stanley also mixes the compost with clay soil, sand and minerals to produce various blends of topsoil. The company relies on radio ads and direct-mail marketing to promote the products.

PROMOTING PRE-TREATMENT

In keeping with its environmental focus, Stanley also actively promotes the use of septic system pretreatment units — and the use of septic systems in general.

“A septic system is a much better way to treat waste than sewers,” Lanier says. “The water is purified by the soil and replenishes the aquifer as well. We’re seeing more cluster systems, where a subdivision relies on one large septic system.”

In some applications, Stanley uses the E-Z TREAT pretreatment filter system, made by E-Z SET Co. The system employs ultraviolet lighting to kill bacteria in wastewater, then disperses the effluent through thousands of feet of 1/2-inch-diameter tubing, which takes the place of a conventional drain field.

“It all depends on the terrain you have to work with and the surrounding vegetation,” he notes.

As more and more communities find it’s too expensive to keep expanding sewer services, Lanier sees large-scale septic systems, outfitted with pretreatment units, as a popular alternative.

As an example, Lanier cites a large pretreatment septic system Stanley installed at a community center built by a local environmentally conscious developer. The system features 25 E-Z TREAT units and a 9,600-linear-foot Infiltrator chamber system, made by Infiltrator Systems Inc. The chambers take the place of stone and pipe leachfields. Better yet, the chambers are made from recycled plastic.

“It’s better because it allows more water per square foot to permeate the ground than through stones,” Lanier explains. “There’s no stone compaction or gravel to clog the pores of the soil. These systems can make otherwise undevelopable property usable.”

DIVERSITY IS CRITICAL

The ability to offer a wide range of services is a key component of Stanley’s business model. That’s why the company installs septic systems as well as pumps grease traps and septic tanks, collects and recycles waste, plus provides a variety of other municipal and industrial pumping and cleanup services.

“We want to give customers a one-stop shop,” Lanier says. “The more we can offer them, the less chance there is of a competitor coming in. Also, a diversified company is more sustainable in a poor economy because you’re not dependent on one revenue stream. Offering residential, industrial and commercial services is an important part of our growth in today’s economy.”

To that end, Stanley promotes service maintenance contracts, which generate revenue from customers in between pumpings, and can detect problems before they become serious.

“It’s important to watch systems,” Lanier says. “We do annual or biannual inspections to check for things such as leaks and bacteria levels, and to make sure the pump and other components are running properly. We always wash out the filter, too, which is one of those things that’s out of sight and out of mind for most customers.

“At first, it’s hard to convince customers (about the importance of inspections),” he continues. “But it’s easier after they understand how it can increase the life expectancy of their system.”

Stanley plans to diversify even further this year by extracting the brown oil in grease-trap waste, then selling it for use in the alternative fuel market. The company is currently building an extraction facility to remove the two to five percent of brown oil that resides in grease.

“This kind of fuel can be used in boilers, asphalt plants and fossil-fuel plants. We’ll need a lot of volume, so we’re expanding our territory to gain more market,” Lanier explains. “And we’ll also accept grease trap waste from other pumpers.”

Lanier says he expects the facility to benefit other pumpers because growing numbers of waste treatment facilities are no longer accepting grease, and land-application permits are becoming more and more difficult to obtain.

Another environmental challenge, another solution — and another example of Stanley living up to its name.



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