Two Olympic Peninsula projects win state grants to turn waste into products

The Port of Port Townsend and the Composite Recycling Technology Center in Port Angeles are among seven Washington organizations sharing about $2.4 million in state Industrial Symbiosis grants, which pay for projects that turn one industry’s waste into another industry’s raw material.

The Port of Port Townsend in Jefferson County will receive $285,000 to develop an industrial symbiosis park for wood, where current and future businesses can share resources and processing to repurpose the wood waste they generate. The Composite Recycling Technology Center in Clallam County will receive $303,000 to pilot converting locally sourced industrial and post-consumer waste into a durable, moldable construction block.

“At CRTC, that means transforming waste into new materials and commercially viable products, while building the knowledge, capabilities, and relationships from which new industries and jobs can grow here in Washington,” said Joel Lippold, the center’s director of composites.

The other recipients are Cascadia Conservation District in Chelan County, $54,871 for mobile processing that turns woody debris into biochar; Clean-Vantage in Benton County, $469,000 to develop a process that converts carbon dioxide from wet organic waste into renewable natural gas; Earthwise/Salvage Lumber Warehouse in King County, $495,129 to turn salvaged lumber and wood waste into building products; Intercept Carbon in Snohomish County, $385,500 for a small-scale reactor that makes carbon pellets and liquid fertilizer; and Palouse Fiber in Garfield County, $432,000 to capture and reuse fiber waste.

Each recipient must match its award dollar for dollar, for a combined $4.85 million in work through June 30, 2027, according to the Washington State Department of Commerce. The Legislature created the grant program in 2021, and Commerce said it has now funded projects in 17 counties.

Program details are on the state’s Industrial Symbiosis page.