Staff at the West Tennessee Regional Recycling Hub display the check they received from The Recycling Partnership. | Courtesy of West Tennessee Regional Recycling Hub
Five grants recently awarded by The Recycling Partnership will help MRFs install additional sorting equipment, boosting recovery of aluminum and plastics.
Four MRFs receive aluminum grants
The Recycling Partnership recently awarded grants to four MRFs across the country to help them improve their UBC recovery.
According to a press release, The Recycling Partnership’s Aluminum Recycling Initiative awarded grants to GreenWaste in San Jose, Calif.; Pioneer Recycling in Tacoma, Wash.; RDS in Portsmouth, Va.; and Recycling Works in Elkhart, Ind. Across the four MRFs, an estimated additional 1 million pounds of aluminum will be recycled each year.
The Aluminum Recycling Initiative has received support from the Can Manufacturers Institute (CMI), Alcoa Foundation and Arconic Foundation, with additional support from Cox Enterprises.
Money to expand, improve sorting at MRF
The Recycling Partnership provided a $495,000 grant to the West Tennessee Regional Recycling Hub to expand the MRF in Chester County, Tenn. The money, which was matched by $330,000 from the recipient, will overhaul the MRF, which is located in the city of Henderson and plays an important role in western Tennessee and northern Mississippi recycling programs.
The West Tennessee Regional Recycling Hub will install robotic sorters, which will upgrade its capacity to recover PET and PP, according to a press release. As a result, the facility will begin to accept PP packaging from 136,000 households in the area that don’t currently accept PP in their program.
The project will also expand the tipping floor, allowing the facility to receive an additional 3,500 tons per year.
Funding for the grant came from The Recycling Partnership and American Beverage.
The Chester County Solid Waste & Recycling Department and the West Tennessee Recycling Hub recently put out a request for bids for the robots. The bids were opened Oct. 4.
The MRF was originally built with a $6.5 million grant from the state of Tennessee.