Jeanette McMurtry has worked for SaaS companies, Fortune 500 brands like Sony, Xerox, American Express and more.
Denver-based Starlight Software Solutions, a software solutions firm serving the waste management and recycling industry, has appointed Jeanette McMurtry as chief marketing officer.
McMurtry joins Starlight Software Solutions as the company says it poises for rapid growth due to the completion of its cloud-based system designed to serve the hauling and recycling sectors. This includes roll-off dumpsters to the commercial, residential, portable toilet and municipal reporting.
Starlight says it offers a robust suite of software as a service (SaaS) solutions that accelerate efficiency across dispatch, inventory, route management, customer and contractor change orders, driver productivity and more.
“Jeanette brings a new level of marketing expertise to Starlight, helping us strengthen our brand as well as our lead generation and sales processes,” says Bill Bradley, CEO and founder of Starlight Software. “Her ability to create and drive winning marketing strategies and campaigns has quickly boosted our pipeline and set us up to exceed our growth goals for 2022 and 2023.”
McMurtry’s background includes marketing strategy, campaigns and execution. She has worked for SaaS companies, Fortune 500 brands like Sony, Xerox, American Express, and more. Starlight says she has helped companies double sales revenue in short order and increase lead generation and account value.
The company says her success is rooted in her approach to psychology-based marketing, which is the focus of her prior public speaking career, 15-year monthly marketing column and three international books published for Wiley and McGraw-Hill. She is the author of Marketing for Dummies fifth edition, released in 2017, and the sixth edition, which will release in the fall.
“One of the most fulfilling aspects of my career is working with highly talented, innovative teams to bring new and needed products to market," says McMurtry. “I am honored to be part of Starlight Software Solutions and help accelerate growth for one of the most robust products in waste management that is a true game-changer for the entire industry.
For more information about Starlight’s suite of software solutions, click here.
The Casella-owned landfill has been sending a majority of its leachate to Plattsburgh, New York, and the rest to Franklin, New Hampshire.
A wastewater treatment facility in Vermont has stopped accepting leachate from the only operating landfill in the state due to high levels of E. coli found in the liquid waste.
In late April, the Montpelier Waste Resource Recovery Facility discovered an influx of E. coli in the plant’s effluent system, which violated its permit. Since then, the Coventry landfill—owned by Rutland, Vermont-based Casella—has been trucking a majority of its leachate produced in the state to Plattsburgh, New York, and the rest to Franklin, New Hampshire.
Chris Cox, chief operating officer at the Montpelier facility, told VTDigger.org that he is not sure when the city will be able to accept leachate again, adding that his team is currently working with Casella and the consulting engineering firm Brown and Caldwell to determine the source of the problem.
On April 20, Cox says officials found E. coli levels of 190 colony forming units (CFU) per 100 milligrams, and the permitted limit is 77 CFU. That level remains below what the state considers safe for swimming, which is 235 CFU, Cox adds.
Officials later determined that leachate was the source of the problem, with E. coli levels dropping dramatically soon after the flow of leachate into the facility stopped.
Joe Fusco, vice president at Casella Waste Systems, told VTDigger.org he was not aware of problems with the leachate, and the incident has not posed a “significant obstacle for the company.”
While the company’s pretreatment discharge permit regulates the quality of leachate leaving the landfill, VTDigger.org reports it is difficult to determine whether that permit could be relevant to the incident because officials do not yet know what caused the problem at the treatment facility.
Components of the leachate are “based on what's sent to the landfill in the first place,” Fusco says.
Fusco indicated that the facility might accept leachate again in the coming weeks, but Cox says he couldn’t confirm that timeline. The Montpelier facility is currently waiting on a report from Brown and Caldwell to “explain how, if possible, [the facility] will continue to take leachate.”
Shuttered for two years, the Coastal Resources of Maine facility could divert from landfills up to 80 percent of the municipal solid waste it receives.
A municipal solid waste facility (MSW) in Hampden, Maine, could soon be purchased by the Municipal Review Committee Inc. (MRC), a nonprofit organization overseeing MSW issues for 115 municipalities in coastal Maine.
During a June 29 MRC meeting, Eaton Peabody attorney Shawn Doil, representing the committee, said two lienholders who had been objecting to the sale have agreed in principle to a resolution.
The organization has departed from a prior plan to seek financing from its member towns and cities, MRC President Karen Fussell said.
“We’re actually working with a number of good potential private sector partners that we might work with to share ownership and operation of the facility,” she said.
Doil said she anticipates the sale should close sometime in the next several weeks.
Closed since May 2020, the Coastal Resources of Maine waste-to-energy facility would provide MSW collection and recycling for residents in the 115 towns the MRC serves. Coastal Resources of Maine LLC is subsidiary of Fiberight, whose technology is in the Hampden facility.
For the past two years, the MRC has monitored and maintained the shuttered 144,000-square-foot facility, paid its utilities and protected the equipment within, according to an MRC document on the plan to buy the facility, all while seeking a buyer and operator for the facility. However, several interested parties were unable to demonstrate the technical and financial capabilities necessary to own and operate the recycling facility.
The MRC anticipates the final purchase price of the facility will range from $1 million to $1.5 million, but the startup cost could be around $20 million.
An MRC overview of the facility says it was the first U.S. recycling facility with an integrated pulper that can process items such as dirty paper plates, coffee cups and pizza boxes in addition to more routine recyclables. The facility is capable of diverting from landfill 60 percent to 80 percent of the material it receives.
The MRC says in its redevelopment plan for the facility that it should be able to turn a profit at full operation, which would include an investment of up to $5 million, but market conditions for recycling commodities and cellulose pulp also have improved markedly since the May 2020 closure which was around the time of the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Ismael Daneluz brings more than 17 years of management experience through previous roles at Palfinger locations in Brazil, Austria and Spain.
Ismael Daneluz will join Palfinger’s North America region in the role of vice president of sales and service. Daneluz will be responsible for developing strategic sales plans that will promote sales growth and customer satisfaction for the organization, as well as target specific market segments and geographic locations.
Daneluz is currently vice president of sales and service for Palfinger in Latin America (LATAM) and will continue to be a member of the Latin American leadership team in a dual role.
He has a degree in business administration, with specializations in marketing and strategy, and holds an executive master’s in corporate finance and law from ESADE Business & Law School. Daneluz brings more than 17 years of management experience through several roles at Palfinger locations in Brazil, Austria and Spain. These roles include sales and business development, corporate strategy, project management, finance and purchasing.
In 2018, Daneluz became the managing director of Tim Hortons Iberia, and rejoined the Austria-based Palfinger Group a few years later, where together with the LATAM regional team he drove significant growth in the region with record sales and EBIT performance.
“In addition to his broad management experience, Ismael has an excellent understanding of our industry and the strong network within Palfinger. He is very well equipped to lead all commercial activities, drive brand positioning and sales growth in the North American region, together with the regional management team and strongly supported by our global Palfinger organization structure,” says Gerhard Sturm, senior vice president of global sales and service for Palfinger.
Waste and recycling company says $30 million will go toward optical scanners and glass recovery.
WM, based in Houston and formerly known as Waste Management Inc., has announced it will invest approximately $30 million in its material recovery facility (MRF) in Oakwood, Ohio, near Cleveland.
The company says the investment will be used to install optical sorting scanners for fiber and plastic designed to optimize the recovery and quality of recycled materials. The project also includes system upgrades to support what WM calls sophisticated glass recovery and cleanup, as well as a fire-detection system designed to detect and put out fires before they spread.
Additionally, the current recycling center’s baled commodity storage space is expected to increase from approximately 7,000 square feet to 32,000 square feet.
Construction on the expanded facility already has begun, and the project is expected to be completed by March 2023, WM says.
“WM works with our customers to help achieve their recycling needs, and with more than half a million customers in Ohio, it is critical that we continue to invest in our communities and expand our recycling infrastructure,” says Aaron Johnson, Great Lakes area vice president for WM. “At our core, WM is a sustainability company, and with this investment in the Cleveland community our team is proud to reinforce our commitment to the environment.”
The waste and recycling firm says the project is part of its planned $275 million investment in recycling infrastructure in 2022, bringing the company’s overall investment in new and upgraded recycling facilities to more than $1.3 billion since 2018.
With the demand for recycled content products continuing to rise, the investment is expected to enable WM to capture more recycled materials and increase access to recycling for its customers, the firm says.
A brand-new recycling education room also is planned for the Cleveland MRF, which will be open to the public for scheduled education sessions and tours.
Currently, WM operates four MRFs in Ohio. With this expansion, WM’s Cleveland facility is projected to become the primary recycling processing hub in the state. WM anticipates adding an additional 40 positions at the site and providing “the opportunity to upskill current roles as technology is added.”
The Ohio Environmental Protection Agency (OEPA) recently announced the award of a $200,000 Market Development Grant to support the planned recycling processing improvements. The grant award continues what WM calls strong collaboration between WM and the Cuyahoga County Solid Waste Management District to improve recycling capabilities in Ohio.
“The Cuyahoga County Solid Waste District is thrilled that WM chose to expand recycling capabilities in Northeast Ohio, as it will serve as a catalyst for other sustainability efforts in the area,” says Elizabeth Biggins-Ramer, executive director of Cleveland-based Cuyahoga Recycles. “Additionally, WM’s education center will provide residents, businesses and community leaders the opportunity to experience how to recycle right.”
“This facility will provide a greater opportunity for local solutions for single-stream recycling,” WM’s Johnson adds. “We are proud to bring cutting-edge equipment and technology to the people and businesses we serve in Cuyahoga County and beyond, helping to make Ohio cleaner and greener for all.”
WM describes itself as North America’s largest comprehensive waste management environmental solutions provider via its subsidiaries that provide collection, recycling and disposal services to residential, commercial, industrial and municipal customers in the United States and Canada.