Converted Organics rises on spate of news

Shares of Converted Organics (NASDAQ: COIN), a Boston-based developer of environmentally friendly soil amendments and fertilizer, are up on news the company received its first delivery of 15,000 gallons of liquid food waste at its new Woodbridge, N.J., manufacturing facility.

Waste management firm Russell Reid delivered the initial shipment, which, according to the company, is already being processed into organic fertilizer.

Using its high temperature composting system, the company said it anticipates organic fertilizer from the initial batch to be available for shipment by July 15.

Converted said it plans to sell the organic-based fertilizer and soil amendment products to agribusiness, turf management, retail and municipal customers throughout North America.

The company has been pushing hard to make good on its promise of delivering organic fertilizer by this summer (see Converted Organics goes public on promise).

In the last week alone, Converted announced a liquid food waste relationship with Brooklyn, N.Y., waste management firm Filco Environmental Services, named Dean Ulrich as general manager of its flagship facility, and said yesterday it received the necessary permits from the State of New Jersey to receive liquid food waste at its 60,000 square foot flagship facility.

Under the terms of the Filco relationship, the two companies said they have agreed to work together in the collection, processing and conversion of food waste for Filco's food service clients.

Filco's client base includes the metro New York market and the companies said they anticipate the relationship will reap benefits for both, but did not reveal when shipments of liquid food waste would begin or how large they would be.

Converted Organics announced the partnership with Russell Reid in April 2008, and according to the company, the initial shipment of approximately 70 tons of organic waste was received yesterday.

Last year the company said its Woodbridge facility would be permitted to process up to 500 tons per day, but would plan on initially processing half that amount per day.

The company was unavailable for comment prior to publication.

Converted Organics was up 24.91 percent today, to $6.65 by midday trading.