Russell Reid Converts Rutgers Food Waste to Renewable Energy
Russell Reid has been recognized on My Central Jersey News for reusing fats, grease and oils from Rutgers University Dining Halls to help curb the fuel costs and client footprint at the Joint Meeting of Union and Essex Counties Waste Water Treatment Plant in Elizabeth, New Jersey.
Representatives of Russell Reid and Joint Meeting explained how the leftover food particles and oil and waste makes its way down to the outdoor grease trap, where the separation occurs. Russell Reid technicians prevents clogs by sucking out the fat and waste from the trap, so that the system operates well. At the Waste Water Treatment Plant at Union and Essex, the water gets discharged off the truck and through the facility. The fats, oil and grease material serves as a food source to various microorganisms that produce methane gas, which is used as a fuel in the cogeneration process for electricity and heating.
You can also watch the video on My Central Jersey here.
New Locker Room: Safety at our Core!
Russell Reid is the best name in the nonhazardous waste management business for plenty of reasons, but the one we’re most proud of is our emphasis on safety. Since the company’s founding in 1981, Russell Reid has enforced a strict safety policy to ensure the happiness of customer and employee alike. From monthly STOP (Safety, Training, Operation, and Professionalism) meetings, to DriveCams installed on all of our trucks, to a uniform consisting of mandatory personal protective equipment (PPE), we take safety seriously.
With that in mind, Russell Reid is particularly proud to announce our newly renovated locker room at the Keasbey location. This brand new feature is double the size and steps away from the yard and shop. Each employee has an individual locker to safely store PPE when they’re off the clock and personal belongings during the day. The locker room also boasts a newly installed eye wash station in case of emergency, new lighting and ventilation, and an ADA compliant toilet and lavatory.
When Russell Reid relocated our headquarters to Raritan Center, the corporate services and warehouse spaces were converted into a air-conditioned truck shop that now acts as a new, safe office space for mechanics, a proper storage space, and a facility for new servicing equipment. Each of these features allows Mr. John to be more efficient and work with care and precision.
Every day, Mr. John is working to be the best we can possibly be in the portable sanitation business. But we can’t get there unless we know that our staff are safe and feel secure in their workplace, so they can deliver on what you need most.
Celebrate the 4th of July with Russell Reid!
Happy 242nd, Uncle Sam! Nothing says Summer like the 4th of July – so put on your red, white, and blue and get ready to celebrate America with Russell Reid! All over the country, Americans will be covered in stars and stripes, barbecuing and watching fireworks. We want to be there to ensure that your patriotic party goes smoothly.
As you spangle your house with flags and banners, Russell Reid will provide you with the services you need to make sure everything runs just right. Your septic system might not be the first of your worries when planning a 4th of July Party, but Russell Reid is here to help.
Make sure to remind your guests who are using your bathrooms not to flush anything down the toilet that doesn’t easily decompose. This includes the small stuff too, like matches, tampons, cigarette butts, wipes, and diapers.
While preparing for your party, try to limit your water use as to not overload the tank with liquids to drain. You can be prudent by sweeping your driveway and sidewalks instead of hosing them down, limiting shower time, and perhaps taking a look at our sister company, United Site Services, to rent some portable toilets instead of having everyone flushing all night long!
If it’s time for a pump before the 4th, give us a call! No one wants a septic emergency on their big night. Russell Reid is here to help you celebrate the right way. Kick back, watch the fireworks, and have some bbq – in the spirit of the 4th of July!
Place your order here!
It’s Easy to Digest Sustainability with Russell Reid
The Russell Reid Company prides itself on being a company with its goals set toward the future. Our projects, services, and team keep sustainability in mind, particularly in our work with grease trap pumping. We don’t blame restaurant owners for not thinking twice about where their grease goes after it’s out of the tank. But the truth is that the greasy leftovers from your favorite guilty pleasure are just at the beginning of its life –– and purpose.
In a typical month, the team at Russell Reid can deliver up to 300,000 gallons of grease trap waste, or what is known as FOG (fats, oils, & grease) to our partners at the Joint Meeting of Essex and Union Counties (JMEUC), a Publicly Owned Wastewater Treatment Works (POTW). It is received in the Scum Collection System and later pumped into an anaerobic digester that uses the grease as a food source for the organisms that live inside. These organisms use the process of anaerobic digestion to metabolize and therefore breakdown the lipids and proteins that makeup the grease. The waste products of this digestion include carbon dioxide, hydrogen sulfide, methane, and water vapor.
While those gases are waste for the organisms that break down the grease, they are actually vital resources to the process that unfolds at Joint Meeting. The gas from the digester is cooled, and the methane is separated from the rest of the byproducts so it can be used as fuel for generators. Using solely the methane produced from the grease that Russell Reid pumps, a.k.a. the food scraps from your favorite restaurants, JMEUC is able to sustain 75% of their electrical demand.
The chain of sustainability doesn’t stop there though –– the waste heat given off during the process is used to heat water in a boiler system for both comfort and the heating of the digestion process itself. Through the grease delivered by Russell Reid from our grease trap service, the diets of anaerobic organisms, and the innovation of our partners at POTW, JMEUC is nearing a closed system of energy conversions.
So go ahead, eat out for dinner tonight! The leftovers will live on as a meal for some other living thing, and help lead us down a path of sustainable recycling and energy consumption!
