TRADE AND TRANSPORTATION : Newport Beach Firms Help Mexico, China With Waste Disposal

Two Newport Beach companies are doing their part to help clean up the world.

Metalclad Corp. has been the only U.S. company involved in remodeling and building hazardous waste treatment plants in Mexico.

Metalclad just bought and is remodeling a $6.2-million hazardous waste landfill in the central Mexican city of San Luis Potosi, with the goal of bringing it up to U.S. pollution-control standards. The plant will allow Mexican firms to dispose of waste in their own country, rather than having to truck it to Texas plants for disposal.

Metalclad is also positioning itself to take advantage of the environmental provisions of the proposed North American Free Trade Agreement.

Meanwhile, Environmental Consulting & Production Inc. has shipped the first of its waste-water treatment systems to China. The system is designed to treat waste water from textile mills.

President Bjorn Sundbakken said a second unit is being shipped this month to China. The company’s systems are already being used in 45 countries.

“The Chinese have sent two good-size delegations to our facility in Irvine . . . and then ordered equipment,” Sundbakken said in a statement. “We worked with China for three years prior to this order and it appears to be the first contract of many.”