WM, North America's leading waste management provider, invested nearly $40 million to upgrade its materials recovery facility (MRF) in Wisconsin so it can process more plastic, a major source of global pollution.
According to Packaging Dive, the upgrades have allowed the MRF to handle 50% more materials than before, equating to more than 230,000 tons of plastic and other waste annually. Part of the $39 million investment also went toward installing a film extraction system to process plastic film — one of the hardest materials to recycle historically. While plastic film isn't accepted for recycling in Germantown, where the MRF is located, capturing any that does make its way into the facility reduces contamination and keeps operations running smoothly.
Plus, WM is testing the profitability in selling "film-like materials" that it captures from the material stream, though Troy Hanson, director of operations at the facility, told Packaging Dive that there currently aren't many avenues for selling the material.
But that isn't stopping the company from expanding its recycling capabilities. Earlier this year, Resource Recycling reported that WM opened another $150 million plastic film recycling center, Natura PCR, near Houston, that is capable of processing 7.5 million pounds of resin per month.
WM, formerly known as Waste Management, estimates that the amount of recycling it receives will increase as more people move to the Germantown area and take advantage of recycling options. So, making sure the company can handle that extra volume is of utmost priority. To that end, the upgrades in Wisconsin allow the facility to handle larger numbers of Number 4 and 5 plastics, which are commonly used in plastic bags, squeezable bottles, films, food containers, and bottle caps.
Once the materials are processed, WM sends some of them to Alabama-based KW Plastics for further recycling. From there, the plastic is repurposed into tubs and buckets. The rest remains in Wisconsin and is eventually turned into important commodities such as boxes and paper towels.
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Because the new system can accommodate the ever-changing world of recycling and packaging, Hanson said it won't be a problem for the MRF to keep up.
"We certainly anticipate that material types are going to continue to evolve," he told Packaging Dive. "We wanted to enable ourselves with technology that will help us be able to adapt when we need to to capture those materials — if there's end markets for some of the materials — that are going to be part of that evolution."
And that technology, which includes increasing automation, helps WM's facilities process more materials per hour and boost efficiency while eliminating the more physically demanding tasks that workers were responsible for prior to the upgrades. Overall, WM plans to invest $1.4 billion through 2026 to both expand existing plants and build new ones.
Oddly enough, some clothing items end up in the MRF, which John Schultz, recycling facility manager at the MRF, says is considered contamination. Luckily, the new system is able to separate and process it since a good portion of the clothing contains PET, a common form of plastic. The materials are then shipped to a textile recycler, in some cases, or thrown away.
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As more advancements are made to recycling and materials recovery facilities, it will be that much easier to keep plastic from contaminating the environment and posing a risk to wildlife. It's also a huge benefit to humans, as that means more plastic can be put in the recycling bin instead of the trash, ensuring a cleaner, healthier future for all.
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