Austin City Council Considers By-Product Bonus

The Austin City Council will consider a proposal at Thursday's meeting to bring by-product synergy, or BPS, to the city.  The proposal is co-sponsored by council members Chris Riley and Sheryl Cole, and asks the City Manager to bring options before the council by May 27.

BPS is a process that matches by-product or waste streams with potential users, and promotes efficient use of resources, helps avoid pollution, and generates new revenues by creating a way for organizations to reuse waste products.

Dillo Dirt^TM is an example of by-product synergy already in process here in Austin.  Yard clippings and treated sewage sludge are composted together and cured to create a soil additive that is later sold by vendors and used by the city. 3,000 cubic yards of Dillo Dirt were used in the renewal of Zilker Park.

Other cities are already putting BPS initiatives into practice.  In Kansas City, a BPS group reported 29 synergies that could be commercially viable in the near future.  The initiative there expects to keep 30,000 tons of solid waste out of landfills each year.  And in Chicago, a "waste to profit" collaborative has saved its member organizations more than $4 million and generated $500,000 in new revenues in just the first year.

Council Member Bill Spelman said he welcomes the opportunity to launch a Central Texas BPS network. “Helping our regional corporations, agencies and governments find ways to make money by saving the planet just makes sense,” he said. “I look forward to working with the City Manager to find good working examples of these networks and bringing them to the Austin metro area.”

To learn more about how by-product synergy works, watch the video below.