California resource recovery project secures funding

Mustang Renewable Power Ventures, a waste management company based in Newport Beach, California, announced the Tajiguas Resource Recovery Project in Santa Barbara has secured a plan for funding. Barbara County has approved a nearly $167 million, 20-year, tax-exempt and taxable municipal bond issued from the county’s Solid Waste Enterprise Fund to finance the project, which is meant to extend the life of the existing landfill. 

The Tajiguas Resource Recovery Project is a design-build-operate public-private partnership (DBO P3) between Santa Barbara County and Mustang Renewable Power Ventures through an affiliate MSB Investors. In 2010, Mustang was selected as preferred developer under a DBO P3 contract for the solid waste environmental infrastructure project now under construction at the county-owned Tajiguas Landfill. This comprehensive solid waste project includes a 66,500-square-foot material recovery facility (MRF), a 68,500-square-foot anaerobic digester facility and related composting facilities. Once construction is completed, Mustang says the project will have the ability to process 250,000 tons of mixed solid waste (MSW), 40,000 tons of commingled source separated recyclables and 74,000 tons of organic waste annually.

Designed to divert more than 60 percent of the MSW currently being landfilled, this project will more than double the remaining life of the landfill while reducing greenhouse gas emissions by more than 110,000 metric tons per year, which Mustang says is the equivalent of removing 24,000 cars from the highway. This project will allow the county and participating cities to achieve California’s mandated landfill and organic waste diversion and recycling goals. Additionally, 6 megawatts of renewable power will be generated from biogas, landfill gas and solar energy facilities.

For more information, visit www.ResourceRecoveryProject.com.