SEATTLE (Recycling Monster): The mass burn combustion facility run by Covanta in Long Beach, California will stop accepting municipal solid waste (MSW) effective this month end.

The company plans to wind down operations at the Southeast Resource Recovery Facility (SERRF), decommission it and hand it over to city authorities for demolition. With this, California now has only one WTE facility- the one located in Stanislaus County.

It must be noted that the SERRF, which began operations in 1988, has led to elimination of approximately 37 million tons of carbon dioxide equivalent over the past years, in accordance with estimates provided by the Energy Resources Department. It processed 380,000 tons of waste and recovered more than 9,000 tons of metals per year.

The Long Beach City authorities plan to replace the WTE facility with an organics receiving and processing facility. The Energy Resources Department has already issued a notice of intent to enter into a contract with Bioenergy Devco towards construction of an anaerobic digestion facility.

The City had received two proposals, from which Bioenergy Devco’s proposal was chosen by the selection committee. The name of the second company was not disclosed. The negotiations with Bioenergy Devco will begin following approval by the Council.