The dream started in 1986 when the State of Nevada asked Dr. John Whitney to assist in solving damage to the aquatic life in the Truckee River, near Reno. The State had determined the problem was caused by silver leaking out of photographic wastes that were dumped into the river by a sewage treatment plant – it was receiving an excess volume of heavy metals from photo and X-ray processing plants.
Thus the humble beginnings of Itronics Inc., which Dr. Whitney has since developed into the world’s only photochemical recycling company with a brand-new, first-of-its kind factory in Stead, Nevada, near Reno.
He was told it couldn’t be done. His idea of stripping the heavy metals, including silver, out of photowastes and turning the demetallized liquid into quality fertilizer was simply too difficult.
And major problem it was, and is. About 100 million gallons of photographic waste is generated in the U.S. each year – about 40% of all toxic liquid waste produced in the U.S. according to the US EPA – and is an unavoidable byproduct of photo processing facilities, commercial printers, radiology labs and various other industries. It is an aqueous solution that includes silver, cadmium, selenium and chromium.
The majority of this waste continues to be disposed into the nation’s sewer system. Sewer sludge is the mud-like material that remains after treatment of wastes that flow into a sewage treatment plant. A National Academy of Sciences report says the sludge may cause illnesses when used to fertilize gardens, golf courses and farms because it still contains chemicals which could impact water quality.
It took 15 years of work and $24 million to develop a proprietary process that extracts virtually all the silver and other heavy metals from photowastes and converts the resulting liquid into a line of environmentally beneficial, chelated, nutrient rich liquid fertilizers marketed under the name GOLD’n GRO. The fertilizer is sold to horticultural businesses in the West under the Itronics Metallurgical banner and on the Internet to individual gardeners. The silver is sold to refineries and the Company sells a collectible, a popular Silver Nevada Miner bar commemorating the mining history of the state, and featuring a reproduction of a miner at the famous Comstock Mines in Virginia City, Nevada. The other heavy metals are removed from the brew and worked into a completely nonhazardous, inert, reflective jade-green glass matrix suitable for decorative tiles. This means Itronics, which was established in 1987, has developed commercial use for 100 percent of the photochemical waste by-products.
Itronic’s fertilizers have proven successful with crops including watermelons, plums, corn, alfalfa, grapes and fruit trees. The GOLD’n GRO products also boost production of these crops from 10-50% and, because only distilled water is used in the manufacturing process, they are toxic metal free. Users of GOLD’n GRO will use up to two-thirds less fertilizer to obtain improved plant production, reducing the risks of surface or ground water contamination.
Citrus tested with GOLD’n GRO show a 40% increase in weight and juice content and a 12% increase in the size of Valencia oranges. There’s a 33% increase in output and an improvement of the quality of alfalfa. GOLD’n GRO tests to a 12% increase in the output of sweet corn, with more ears per corn stalk, and a five percent increase in the number of grapes produced. In trials, the size and value of fresh plums and watermelons increased. It’s has effective in reducing sun damage to tomatoes, rust damage to sunflowers and disease in peach trees.
Other sustainable start-up businesses facing equally daunting challenges may be interested to know how Dr. Whitney survived and got the business funded. Before starting Itronics he ran Whitney and Whitney, a profitable mining consulting company, which reverse merged into Itronics in 1987. This gave the new Company the impetus it needed to research and develop beneficial use recycling. The mining consulting portion of Itronics continued to operate profitably.
For financing, Whitney first went to friends and family, offering them a private placement of restricted shares with attached warrants. An article in a prestigious newsletter also led to many private placement investments. Itronics is headquartered near Lake Tahoe, a favorite location for dot.com billionaires – since Nevada has no income or inheritance tax, some of these individuals selected Itronics for a substantial investment, using restricted stock, warrants or convertible notes.
In 2005, Itronics received a $3.2 million investment from a New York- based venture capital firm in the form of convertible notes; the Company subsequently received follow-on investments from the firm. Every path to success is going to be different, but those starting sustainable businesses should realize that “angels” still do exist to help.
Itronics has won numerous awards: the USA Gold Award at the House of Commons in London in 2005; one of the world’s first International Green Heroes awards in 2006 for leadership on environmental issues; a Nevada Inventor of the Year award for Dr. Whitney; one of five finalists for the Kirkpatrick Chemical Engineering Award, the most prestigious award in chemical engineering technologies; and second place in Environmental technology from the Institution of Chemical Engineers, which has honored the top worldwide environmental achievements for the past 12 years. Winners of the Kirkpatrick Award, by the way, have included the Manhattan Project in World War II, the developer of plastic and the establishment of the petrochemical industry. Itronics also won the Green Apple Award, presented to the “greenest” companies, communities and countries throughout the world for the past 11 years. Its GOLD’n GRO fertilizers were recognized as one of the top 10 new product introductions in 2005.
And as a pastime, Dr. Whitney has worked to eliminate the hazardous cyanide in mining through the use of his more environmentally friendly thiosulfate process, both protecting the environment and allowing more gold and silver to be extracted.
Itronics, and Dr. Whitney, have been enormously innovative to accomplish something so sustainable, with such long-term benefits for our world. He says: “Our technology is a major breakthrough for the 140-year-old photographic industry, an excellent example of how technologies can be developed to enable industry to eliminate waste streams by converting them into usable goods.”
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Itronics (ITRO.OB): www.itronics.com
www.goldngro.com
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