Moscow business turns waste into profit

Toilet flushes generate a revenue stream for Inland North Waste, a Moscow-based company that works behind the scenes to prevent sewage and trash from turning into pollution.

Inland North Waste accepts treated biosolids from wastewater treatment plants from towns throughout north central Idaho and southeastern Washington.

The biosolids are mixed with yard waste to make compost. This process is done at both Clearwater Composting in Lewiston and the company’s headquarters just east of Moscow.

Moscow residents can pick up the compost at the headquarters for free. The compost made in Lewiston is sold to retail stores and other buyers like parks by third-party distributors.

The product is high in nitrogen, an important nutrient for plants.

“At the end, if you had compost that didn’t have biosolids in it and you have our compost, you’re not going to be able to tell the difference,” said Stevie Steely-Johnson, chief administrative officer of Inland North Waste. “The technicians will tell you (that).”

Turning biosolids into a form of fertilizer diverts them from landfills, said Brandon Steely-Johnson, the CEO of Inland North Waste.

“It’s a good way to offer a service to residents that’s necessary,” he said.

Together, the Steely-Johnsons, who are married, run Inland North Waste. The couple are taking increasingly prominent roles in the business, emphasizing its community-based approach with a recent name change from Latah Sanitation to Inland North Waste.

He has been involved with the business since elementary school, when his stepdad, the stepson of the founder, would pay him to pick up stray scraps of paper that blow around the headquarters not far from the base of Paradise Ridge east of Moscow.

All three generations of the family have gradually expanded the business since it started in the 1960s with a handful of garbage contracts in the Moscow and Coeur d’Alene areas.

That work is responsible for creating a business that employs about 60 people in Latah and Nez Perce counties and touches the lives of almost everyone in the region.

The company’s biggest customers are municipalities, including the city of Moscow, Latah County and Nez Perce County, which contract with them to handle trash and recyclables.

The yard waste that Sunshine Disposal & Recycling collects in Lewiston is hauled to Clearwater Composting, which also accepts yard waste that residents of Lewiston and Nez Perce County haul to the site at 3965 Industrial Way in Lewiston.

In the city of Moscow, it collects garbage and mixed bins of recyclable materials. Plus, it runs the Moscow Recycling Center, which accepts dozens of types of materials from residents anywhere in Latah County.

The business does curbside collection of garbage in rural Latah and Nez Perce counties, where it maintains satellite sites for yard waste, certain recyclable materials and bulky items like sofas or construction waste.

“It helps with littering,” Stevie said. “We don’t want you to put it in a ditch.”

Those are among many services Inland North Waste offers to help people responsibly dispose of things they no longer need.

Some of their toughest decisions have involved how to handle plastics. In 2018, the Steely-Johnsons and the manager of their recycling center visited the processing center just outside Portland that was handling their single-stream recycling from Moscow.

It was not long after China decided it would only accept imports of recyclables with contamination rates of .02%, in a move called China Sword that shook up the industry. Exporters of recyclables in the United States were forced to find other places to send the materials.

The team from Inland North Waste learned that all of the plastics they were sending numbered three through seven were going to landfills.

When they got back home, they went to the city of Moscow, which contracts with Inland North Waste for its recycling. They won approval to quit accepting three through seven plastics.

“We’re not going to sit here and lie to our community and say you’re recycling when you’re not,” Stevie said. “It’s the wrong thing to do.”

An extensive education campaign followed, that involved her making personal visits to more than 800 Moscow homes.

At the same time, new companies formed in countries other than China to manufacture items such as bottles and carpets from certain recycled plastics.

The education effort and those emerging businesses helped shift the economics. The contamination rate in recycling dropped from about 10% to 3%.

The city of Moscow had been paying $112 per ton, more than the $90 per ton it was paying for garbage, Brandon said.

Now, depending on markets, the city is paying nothing or receiving $20 per ton.

The Steely-Johnsons draw on decades of family involvement in navigating challenges such as the one China Sword presented.

Not long after Richard Johnson started the business, he died unexpectedly. At the time, the family included four young children.

His wife, Diane Johnson, director of nursing at Kootenai County Hospital in Coeur d’Alene, took over her husband’s job in the business.

“I’m sure it was tough on her,” Brandon said. “She found herself in charge of a bunch of big, tough garbage men and everyone was wondering if she could make it work.”

But Diane was used to working with doctors, so she was able to deal with the pressure of her new role.

“Somehow she pulled it off with a lot of hard work,” he said.

The Steely-Johnsons are continuing to build on that tradition making community involvement a priority.

They have introduced a campaign called “We Wave Back” that highlights that its employees wave when they see customers.

That friendliness is shown in other ways by the company. It organizes free entertainment such as movies, music or book readings the third Thursday of every month at Moscow’s Kenworthy Performing Arts Centre.

The business is hosting an Earth Day event from 3-6 p.m. Friday at Moscow’s East City Park, with live music, games, food and other activities.

They also plan to introduce a grant program soon that will allow not-for-profit groups to apply for money.

“We’re eager to grow and do these things we think are the right thing to do,” Stevie said.

Williams may be contacted at ewilliam@lmtribune.com or (208) 848-2261.