Meridian Waste Solutions, Advanced Lignin form JV for innovative biomaterials business

While Advanced Lignin plans to produce many different materials, including adhesives, renewable fuels and carbon fiber, the initial focus will be to produce high performance green plastics.

Lignin is one of the most abundant organic polymers on Earth and is readily available for recovery. Advanced Lignin has identified a pathway to produce green, lignin-based plastics that could ideally prove to cost less and outperform many plastics made from nonrenewable resources, such as petroleum.

Paper mills and cellulosic fuel providers generally burn the lignin contained in their byproduct stream as a source of green, plant based energy. Advanced Lignin has found a greener, and more valuable use for that lignin. According to the company, it takes about two pounds of petroleum to produce only one pound of plastic, and it believes that it can displace about one pound of this petroleum-derived plastic with only about one pound of lignin and as a result, dramatically reduce the carbon footprint of plastic products.

Plants take carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and essentially strip out and store carbon in the plant and release oxygen back to the atmosphere. Plants are therefore referred to as a 'carbon sink,' as they remove and store a significant amount of carbon from the atmosphere. Carbon dioxide is the most widely known greenhouse gas in the Earth's atmosphere, and environmentalists continue to seek pathways to reduce the amount generated, especially from that of nonrenewable sources.

While there is an estimated 239 billion tonnes of crude oil underneath the Earth's surface, diminishing at a rate of about 4.5 billion tonnes per year, there lies about 250 billion tonnes of rapidly renewable lignin sitting on the Earth's surface awaiting harvest, use and reuse. Advanced Lignin believes that its technologies will greatly contribute to positive economic and environmental success by more effectively recycling and reusing this naturally regenerating source of carbon.

"The solid waste industry has a responsibility to identify and maximize economic benefit from the materials it collects for processing and/or disposal," stated Jeff Cosman, CEO of Meridian Waste. "The plastic recycling platform has been our industry's staple in its effort to contribute to environmentally friendly and sustainable solutions. While Meridian Waste will continue to support these traditional recycling efforts, we believe that there are additional pathways that can achieve significantly greater results in terms of sustainability and economic benefit. Our new joint venture will explore one such pathway as it essentially participates and contributes to nature's most efficient and ongoing carbon capture and recycling activities. We look forward to what lies ahead for our company and shareholders and will continue to announce our progress on an ongoing basis."

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