|
Press
Release Archives: 08/09/2005
Itronics Finalist
for One of World's Most Prestigious Environmental Awards
RENO, Nev., Aug. 9 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Itronics
Inc. (OTC Bulletin Board: ITRO; Frankfurt and Berlin
Stock Exchanges: ITG) reported today that it is on the
brink of success in an international competition to find
the greenest companies in the world. Itronics is on the
short list for Final Judging for the Green Apple
Environmental Awards, prestigious environmental awards
presented each year at a ceremony at the House of
Commons in Parliament in England.
The Green Apple Awards have been presented to the
"greenest" companies, communities and countries in the
world for 11 years. This is believed to be the biggest
and most extensive contest of its kind in the world. The
contest is conducted by The Green Organization, an
independent, non-political, non-activist, non-profit
environmental group dedicated to recognizing, rewarding
and promoting environmental best practices around the
world.
The awards are supported by a number of professional
bodies and organizations dedicated to environmental
improvement. National organizer Roger Wolens said it is
a "tremendous achievement to reach the finals, as the
competition gets tougher and more fierce every year.
Contenders are continually reaching new levels of
environmental success and this campaign helps and
encourages others to follow their good example, with the
aim of improving our environment for generations to
come."
The following is extracted from the submission for
Itronics:
Dr. John Whitney had been told by a major photochemical
manufacturer that what he proposed to do was impossible;
that a lifetime of work had convinced this manufacturer
that stripping metals out of photowastes and producing
quality fertilizer from what remains was too difficult
to be accomplished.
The dream had started in 1986 when the State of Nevada
asked Dr. Whitney to assist in solving damage to aquatic
life in the Truckee River, caused by silver leaking out
of a sewage treatment plant that was receiving an excess
volume of photochemicals bearing silver and other toxic
metals from photo and X-ray processing labs. That was
the beginning of Itronics Inc., Reno, which Dr. Whitney
has developed into the world's only photochemical
recycling company with a brand-new, first-of-its kind
factory in Stead, Nevada.
It took 12 years of work and $6 million to develop the
proprietary process that extracts virtually all the
silver and other toxic heavy metals from photowastes and
converts the resulting demetallized liquid into a line
of environmentally beneficial liquid fertilizers called
GOLD'n GRO and sold to golf courses and large
horticultural businesses in the West under the Itronics
Metallurgical banner. The money was raised from the
private sector and from personal sacrifices from Company
management. These fertilizers have proven successful on
watermelons, plums, corn, alfalfa, grapes and fruit
trees and many other crops.
Why do it? The challenge. The opportunity to do
something major for mankind. The chance to market a very
profitable fertilizer.
Dr. Whitney is solving a major environmental concern
that, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency, in the 1990's represented 40 percent of all
toxic liquid waste produced in the U.S. America is
estimated to produce about 100 million gallons of liquid
photowaste annually from photo labs, printers and X-ray
machines.
Said a recent major agricultural columnist about Dr.
Whitney: "Transformation of the environmentally
distasteful residue is an accomplishment in its own
right, but providing a positive benefit for healthy
grass on golf courses, parks, cemeteries, athletic
fields and residential settings makes it a double
winner."
This accomplishment was recognized by the publication
Chemical Engineering, which named Itronics one of the
five finalists for its prestigious Kirkpatrick Award
which, every two years, salutes the most noteworthy
chemical engineering technology to have been
commercialized anywhere in the world during the
preceding two years. The award has previously been given
to such major chemical process innovations as the
establishment of the petrochemical industry, the
Manhattan Project in World War II, Kellogg's ammonia
technology, and Union Carbide's low-pressure
polyethylene (plastic). Dr. Whitney has been named
Nevada's inventor of the year and was selected for the
Inventor's Hall of Fame at the University of Nevada,
Reno.
Who benefited? Our environment. Dr. Whitney has shown
how to take toxic waste and turn it into an
environmentally beneficial product. The long-term
benefits are obvious. The project is so innovative that
only one company, one person, in the world has
accomplished this.
About Itronics
Itronics, through its subsidiary, Itronics
Metallurgical, Inc., is the only company in the world
with a "Beneficial Use Photochemical, Silver, and Water
Recycling" facility that extracts more than 99 percent
of the silver and virtually all the other toxic heavy
metals from used photoliquids and converts the resulting
liquids into environmentally beneficial, chelated,
multinutrient liquid fertilizer products sold under the
GOLD'n GRO trademark, and 5 troy ounce, 0.999 pure,
Silver Nevada Miner numismatic bars. The environmentally
friendly liquid fertilizers can be used for lawns and
houseplants, and are available, along with GOLD'n GRO
liquid fertilizer injectors, at the Company's "e-store"
catalog at http://goldngro.com . The popular Silver
Nevada Miner bars are available at the Company's
'e-store' catalog at http://www.itromet.com .
Headquartered in Reno, Nevada, Itronics Inc. is Nevada's
leading "Beneficial Use Recycling" company and a world
leader in photochemical recycling. The Company also
provides project planning and technical services to the
mining industry. Dr. John Whitney, Itronics President,
was selected as Nevada's Inventor of the Year for 2000
and is a member of the Inventor's Hall of Fame at the
University of Nevada, Reno. Itronics was one of five
finalists for the 2001 Kirkpatrick Chemical Engineering
Award, the most prestigious worldwide award in chemical
engineering technologies.
VISIT OUR WEB SITE: http://www.itronics.com
("Safe Harbor" Statement under the Private Securities
Litigation Reform Act of 1995: This press release
contains or may contain forward-looking statements such
as statements regarding the Company's growth and
profitability, growth strategy, liquidity and access to
public markets, operating expense reduction, and trends
in the industry in which the Company operates. The
forward-looking statements contained in this press
release are also subject to other risks and
uncertainties, including those more fully described in
the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange
Commission. The Company assumes no obligation to update
these forward-looking statements to reflect actual
results, changes in risks, uncertainties or assumptions
underlying or affecting such statements, or for
prospective events that may have a retroactive effect.)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Source: Itronics, Inc. |
