Talkin’ trash on the Schilling Show

Conservative talk radio show host Rob Schilling had me on to talk about the RSWA lawsuit against Pete Van Der Linde. Listen. You can check out the series on this in Selected Writings. I’ve been writing about this for some time, and I’m still trying to figure out what the heck’s going on! lol

Tao of Poo

On May 27, Governor Tim Kaine (D) presided over the groundbreaking ceremony for a $40.3 million upgrade of the Moore’s Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant, which one attending official called the “next step in addressing the impact of humans on the natural ecology.”

Of course, it’s a welcome upgrade, but is it really the “next step”? What if there were a company right here in Charlottesville that makes a waste treatment system designed to look like a beautiful garden and mimic a tidal estuary, a system that purifies wastewater without chemicals, emits no odors, and comes at a fraction of the price of systems like Moore’s Creek?

Too good to be true? Let’s find out (more)

Waste Wars

Way back in February of 2008 I wrote about Peter Van der Linde’s new state-of-the art recycling facility out at Zion Crossroads. Since then, the story has become quite interresting…a story about a man who may have a solution to our waste woes, the same man being sued by our own waste authority….

What a Waste: Is the trash Authority going obsolete?

Why is the main local trash authority suing the man who has offered a solution for the local waste disposal problem? And why is that man paying investigators to find out what words are spoken at the entrance booth of the authority’s favorite trash station?

It’s all part of an ongoing waste war. And before it ends, there’s a chance that the private citizen– unless he’s vanquished in court– may have beaten government at its own game.

Before you toss this newspaper in the recycling bin (we hope that’s what you’ll do after reading it), let’s talk trash with Peter Van der Linde.

A ‘real player’
“The landfill of the future just came to town,” says Van der Linde, a slender, soft-spoken man whose voice sounds not unlike a friendly wizard in a fantasy film, but although it might seem like magic, his new $11 million recycling facility near Zion Crossroads isn’t imaginary. It really does turn trash into cash.

“In the last seven years or so, these separation machines have really been perfected,” says Van der Linde. “I did a lot of research on them, and I believe this one I bought is the ultimate machine.”

Inside a 100,000-square foot steel-framed building, one of three such structures on the site, a 15-man crew is running a state-of the-art recycling machine, a $3.2 million device that can sort up to 100 tons of construction and demolition debris and curbside recyclables per hour. (more)

Wasted revenue? Authority realized in 2005 station didn’t track origins

As reported in a recent cover story ["What a Waste: Is the trash Authority going obsolete?"], there’s a waste war raging with distrust, lawsuits, and even spying.

The Rivanna Solid Waste Authority is suing Peter Van der Linde, who recently opened a major recycling facility in Zion Crossroads (right next to the RSWA-sponsored facility), to retrieve millions in fees the outspoken hauler allegedly avoided paying by lying about the origins of his trash. However, Authority documents recently obtained by the Hook show that the Authority may have been fleeced by its own partner in trash. (More)

Recycle this! Van der Linde steps up tone

Recycling entrepreneur Peter Van der Linde, who opened an $11 million state-of-the-art recycling facility in Zion Crossroads last December, recently did a round of local radio interviews, drawing attention once again to his ongoing legal battle with the Rivanna Solid Waste Authority, which has filed a $3.5 million lawsuit against him.

“If this doesn’t bother you, nothing will,” declared former Republican City Councilor Rob Schilling on his WINA radio program, saying he was “disgusted” by the Authority’s action against Van der Linde. “It’s wrong in every single way.” (More)

COVER- King of the Road: The unstoppable Wendell Wood

A few weeks ago, we contacted developer Wendell Wood to ask if he would respond to rumors that he was building a palatial mansion in Southern Albemarle County. When he called back, he didn’t want to talk about his house, though he neither confirmed nor denied the rumors. He just changed the subject.

“Why would you want to write about some house I’m building?” he said. “The real story is the expansion around NGIC and how it’s going to bring 1,500 new jobs to the area. Now that’s a story.”

Wood offered instead to show us his new 122,000-square-foot high-security office building adjacent to NGIC, the National Ground Intelligence Center, on Route 29, which he plans to lease to the federal government when the new structure is completed in March. As is often the case with big developments, getting approval on the project was not easy.

As is also often the case, Wood got his way.

For four decades the developer has been buying up land and, as he puts it, “making things happen” along 29 North in a kind of real estate chess match that has become his life’s work. Wood uses a simpler analogy, comparing land buying to eating a pie.

“You take one piece, then you come back and take another, then another,” he says, “but it’s that last piece of pie that is the most valuable.”

But he’s clearly oversimplifying; he has had a hand in developing nearly everything familiar along 29 North, from the the Barracks Road Shopping Center to Fashion Square Mall, Wal-Mart to the Hollymead Town Center, and the NGIC, to name just a few. And it has made him rich. In 2001, Virginia Business Magazine listed him as one of the 50 wealthiest people in Virginia with a net worth of $160 million. MORE

Poet to Architect: Remaking the way we see things

In 1996, when poet Lisa Williams began working for architect William McDonough and German chemist Michael Braungart as they wrote their book, Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things, she didn’t know much about environmentalism or ecology. All that was about to change. As Williams helped craft the language of the book, its ideas about the creative processes of nature and how humans can redesign industries using nature as a model began to ignite her imagination.

“I was tremendously inspired by their revelatory description of nature,” says Williams, a former MFA student at UVA, who now teaches poetry at Centre College in Kentucky, “as well as by particular images and pieces of information I came across.”

Cradle to Cradle goes far beyond the idea of recycling and reuse, advocating instead for the complete elimination of waste in the manufacturing process– its title is a take on “cradle-to-grave analysis,” the study of a product’s life-cycle. For example, the book itself is “treeless,” made of a polypropylene synthetic that looks and feels like paper, and which can be as easily recycled as a yogurt container.

In essence, the book embodies its premise– that designers can create products, manufacturing systems, buildings, and developments that mine the intelligent designs of nature– such as nutrient recycling and the unique power of the sun– to allow commerce and nature to benefit from each other. Read more

Critical violator: Twice-closed Tavern vows a cleaner menu

Recently, The Tavern, the long-lived breakfast joint on Emmet Street where “students, tourists, and townpeople” meet, became the place where the salmonella bacterium met with a long history of health code violations.

Health inspection records show that over 60 food handling and preparation violations have been served to The Tavern since January 2003, including 13 during a single inspection last summer. Many of those were “critical repeat” violations, meaning the Health Department had already asked the managers to comply. To put that in perspective, Mel’s Café on West Main has had four critical violations since 2003, Orzo has none since opening in 2006, and Golden Corral has had 23 since 2003.

In early July, that track record came back to haunt The Tavern. MORE

Single-streamin’: Why not try private sector recycling machine?

Developer and entrepreneur Peter van der Linde has a proposal that could save the City and the County millions and make recycling “everything on the planet except food waste” as easy as tossing it into a trash bin. The problem is, no body appears to be listening.

In the Rivanna Sewer and Water Authority’s ongoing strategic plan to improve waste management and recycling services, one idea under review is the feasibility of building a $7 to $10 million Materials Recycling Facility (MRF). However, as previously reported in the Hook ["Coming soon! van der Linde's amazing recycling machine," February 14], van der Linde already has one– an $11-million, 100,000-square-foot recycling center near Zion Crossroads that includes a 270-foot state-of-the-art sorting machine, that he now hopes will be operational in 60 to 90 days. MORE

Mauling the Mall? Don’t change the bricks: Halprin

While discussing the proposed $7.5 million renovation of the Downtown Mall, city planners and the MMM Design Group, the Norfolk-based design firm contracted to do the work, have repeatedly vowed to remain faithful to the original Lawrence Halprin design. Interestingly, no one bothered to consult Halprin himself. MORE

The super recycling machine!

On a 10-acre tract of land near Zion Crossroads, Peter van der Linde plans to finally open a $10-million, 100,000-square-foot recycling center, featuring a 270-foot state-of-the-art sorting machine, which should be operational in mid-May.

“This will be the opposite of the way it’s done now,” he says. “You’ll just throw everything into one container, no need to separate or sort it. You don’t need to lift a finger. We’ll do it.”

He pauses for emphasis.

“Now, everything changes, now recycling is easy,” he says.

Read more!

Letter from a hold up man…

After writing the news, I became the news…appearing on a local TV station after writing about a guy who tried to rob a bank downtown and then wrote a letter to our news office apologizing for it

Now the FBI wants the letter….yikes! Stay tuned.