Cash for Trash

Recyclers are devising dazzling new ways to mint fortunes from America's mountains of waste. The broad category of "waste and recycling," which includes everything from materials recovery to sewage biotechnology, drew a record $622 million of investment in 2007, compared with $245 million a year earlier and just $20 million in 2001, according to Cleantech Group, a green investing consultancy. Sober investors are throwing money not only at established recyclers like Casella Waste, but also at bolder ventures like Warrenville (Ill.) trash-to-ethanol startup Coskata and Austin-based e-waste recycler TechTurn, so confident are they that there's real cash in trash.
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