My tour of Tierra Verde Industries last week was awesome! TVI is a family owned green waste composting, c&d, and e-waste recovery/recycling company. Their facility employes over 130 people and houses the largest e-waste center in California. Operations Manager Darren Ross spent a lot of time showing off the amazing things they are doing in the world of "recycling". TVI sits on 90 acers of leased land that snuggles the Great Park in Irvine, CA. (Former location of the El Toro Marine Base). The facility receives 600 to 700 tons of green waste daily. The green waste (organic matter and biodegradable waste) is piled into long windrows where the waste cooks at temputures of 150 to 160 degrees. It takes approximately 100 days to complete a composting cycle. Once completed the material in siftted to recover the prime nuterient rich soil and different qualities/size of mulch. It was an interesting process to see, but it is easily over shadowed by their e-waste facility. TVI intakes approximately 200 tons of e-waste per day. The material is disassembled into 20 differents commodities. They own a machain that recovers copper from what are called "yokes" (a television part), it is 1 of only 7 operating in the US. I had no idea how much recoverable material was in a basic laptop, especally the "raw earth natural magnet mineral" found in some some. Currently, TVI has been unable to recover this magnet and would be glad to hear any suggestions you may have. TVI has a great recovery rate of about 80%, leaving only 20% being sent to landfills.
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