Jon Wennerberg owner of Star Industries in Chocolay Township stands in front of the Upper Peninsula's only autoclave, which steam-heats and sterilizes medical wastes to prepares it for disposal in landfills. (Journal photo by A.M. Kelley)
In addition to the disposal of medical wastes, the services of Jon Wennerberg's Star Industries includes confidential document destruction, all kinds of paper recycling, computer disposal, and the rental of mini storage units. (Journal photo by A.M. Kelley)
	Jon Wennerberg of Star Industries offers yet another service, the storage of records for businesses here at his Chocolay Township location. (Journal photo by A.M. Kelley)

Company making progress
Star Industries

By A.M. KELLEY
Journal Staff Writer

HARVEY -- Jon Wennerberg is a garbage specialist. The entrepreneur created a niche for himself as the owner of the only medical waste disposal business in the Upper Peninsula.

Under the masthead of his corporation, Star Industries, Wennerberg and his eight employees also destroy confidential documents, recycle computers and have a multi-purpose storage facility in Chocolay Township.

How did this guy from suburban Chicago find his way into this work in the U.P.? One thing leads to another, he said.

Wennerberg left Illinois after high school to study radio broadcast engineering at Michigan Tech University. Difficult math requirements drove him into liberal arts. When he finished that degree, MTU's public radio station was taking off and he worked in its production department.

He moved to Marquette in the mid-1970s and in turn sold industrial electronics supplies, cars and satellite dishes until 1988. At that time a novel idea for a new career presented itself at a meeting of the Marquette Range Engineers Club. Wennerberg attended in his capacity as a salesman of industrial supplies.

The director of the Marquette County landfill addressed the engineers saying there was a need for a medical waste disposal facility in the Upper Peninsula. The idea did not fall on deaf ears. "I didn't want to sell anymore," Wennerberg said. "I read literature. I researched. And then I got one customer -- the U.P. Medical Center."

This was 1991 and his timing was perfect.

That summer the state changed its medical waste laws, ordering hospitals in the U.P. to discontinue incinerating their own wastes, a common practice at the time. Wennerberg does not know why the law was changed only in the U.P. at the time, but without a question it was to his advantage. "All hospitals suddenly had a need," he said. "I had made enough sales calls and had potential customers." As a result, one week he was handling 300 pounds of medical wastes, and overnight the number jumped to 6,000 pounds. He did not incinerate the waste at his business site in Harvey. He loaded trucks and send the waste to Minnesota, Wisconsin and lower Michigan.

The incineration of medical wastes is a source of toxic mercury emissions. Wennerberg said there's now an improved method of disposal -- autoclaving, a process of steam-heating and sterilizing materials.

In 2002 he purchased a used autoclave for $250,000 from North Carolina. Autoclaves are common in the textile industry there. For instance, they're used to process denim fabric to make them colorfast. With the autoclave, wastes are no longer exported but treated on the grounds at Star Industries and then taken to the Marquette County landfill on Marquette County Road 480. "It's less harmful to the environment," Wennerberg said. "The (wastes) are heated up but not destroyed."
Not all medical waste can be autoclaved. Star Industries still trucks out pathological wastes and wastes from chemotherapy. This constitutes 1 percent to 2 percent of medical waste and is eventually incinerated and deposited in landfills.
Medical waste disposal laws are complicated and still evolving. Wennerberg said as the laws now stand even though hospitals cannot incinerate medical wastes, there is nothing to prevent a hospital from dumping its own medical wastes in landfills.
"It's 100 percent legal to take untreated medical wastes to landfills," Wennerberg said.
However, because of liability issues, regional medical centers and hospitals do not do this.
The medical waste disposal business has very few practitioners anywhere in the country. After 13 years experience, he considers himself one of the "old guys" in the business.
One of his mentors was Kenneth Rowe, then the director of the Western U.P. Health Department. Rowe wrote the medical waste disposal law in Michigan, and when building his business Wennerberg went to him as a source for information about the waste laws.
Medical waste disposal absorbed Wennerberg's time and energy for awhile but then he wanted more work.
"When you have 100 percent of the business you can't grow," Wennerberg said. "You have to make (business) up as you go along."
It was suggested to him that businesses need a place to send confidential documents for destruction. Star now provides that service.
It also picks up undeliverable junk mail from the post office -- documents which the government calls UBBMs, undeliverable bulk business mail. While it does not have the capability to empty dumpsters, Star also picks up tons of catalogues, newspapers and all kinds of miscellaneous paper from business, with no cost to the businesses. It also allows anyone in the public to bring unsorted paper with the exception of boxes, gift wrapping and paper bags, to its processing plant.
"We do it for free," Wennerberg said.
These papers do not end up in landfills, he promises. They are 100 percent recycled.
"And we can prove that we send the paper some place. We have receipts," he said.
Star sells its collected papers to Georgia Pacific in Green Bay, Wis., which makes it into toilet paper and paper towels. Manistique Pulp and Paper Mill also buys paper and it makes newsprint and liners used on fast food trays.
"McDonald's -- worldwide -- tray liners are made at Manistique," he said.
A new facet of Wennerberg's business is the recycling of computers. He said they are completely "demanufactured." This means they do not end up in landfills. Star charges $30 per computer.
"Monitors have four, five, six or seven pounds of lead," he said. "There's chromium, cadmium, barium. Not good for landfills. There is a real need to recycle computers and for the safe handling of materials in them."
The prevailing attitude for the disposal of computers at local landfills and waste disposal facilities, according to Wennerberg is: "Sure, bring it all in."
Waste Management at 910 W. Baraga Ave. in Marquette agrees that this is true. It accepts computers from the public with a charge of 5 cents a pound, according to the receptionist there. From there the computers are trucked with other trash to the Marquette County landfill.
Regarding the dumping of computers in the landfill, Rick Aho, its director, said: "Everything is evolving, standards are being adjusted. We're gathering more data on what we should and shouldn't do."
This is fine news to Wennerberg as he sits on top of what may become another environmental issue -- the disposal of old, outdated PCs and laptops.
"The laws are still new," he said, as he positions Star Industries to step in and provide a service which may in time become mandatory.