RBW Waste Management, which handles a variety of types of hazardous materials, got a boost from the government of Alberta to engage in HDPE processing.
The company received a grant of 700,000 Canadian dollars (about $519,000 U.S., all figures below in USD) from the provincial government’s Technology Innovation and Emissions Reduction fund to build a recycling system for HDPE pails, totes and other vessels used to transport liquid and solid wastes.
The material would be processed into pellets and sold back to the original product manufacturers for use in 3D printing, pallets and barricades, a press release noted. Yvana Moldenhauer, RBW’s health, safety and environment manager, told Plastics Recycling Update that the company already collects HDPE, but currently sorts it before shipping it elsewhere for recycling.
The system is estimated to cost a total of about $1 million and is set to be integrated into an existing facility in Edmonton, Alberta. The funding was a chunk of a total $43.2 million distributed through Emission Reduction Alberta’s Circular Economy Challenge.
Once the upgrade is completed, RBW will clean, chip and process HDPE in house. Moldenhauer said the timeline for project completion depends on lead times but RBW is hoping to begin production in the fall.
Funding will be distributed on a milestone basis and the progress of each project will be reported on until completion, the press release stated. All recipients are required to produce a final outcomes report that will be publicly available.
