Beaver State grants boost recyclables sorting capacity

A variety of businesses in Oregon were recently awarded grants to boost materials recovery. | bleakstar/Shutterstock

An Oregon agency has awarded $5.6 million in grants to bolster recycling and composting infrastructure serving the Portland area.

Metro, a Portland, Ore.-area public agency, announced funding to support better sorting of recyclables and improved organics composting. The following are projects funded in the 2019-20 investment and innovation grants program. Each grant was matched at least dollar-for-dollar by the recipient, and some companies contributed more than the grant amount.

Paper

Pioneer Recycling Services: Metro awarded the company $750,000 to install optical sorters to clean up the mixed-paper product. The sorters will be installed on existing sort lines to remove contaminants from the paper stream. The total project budget is $2.6 million.

Mixed containers

Environmental Fibers International: This company received two grants for two separate projects. Metro awarded $556,000 for a $1.1 million project to install a new container sorting line, which will handle 12 material types and will be designed to accommodate future installation of robots and optical sorters.

Separately, Metro gave the company $310,000 for a system to recover over 65% of “unders,” which are small materials that fall through sort screens. The company estimates the total $622,000 investment will allow it to recover an additional 160 tons of paper and containers per month.

Plastics

Denton Plastics: The company was awarded a $684,000 grant to help install an “Eco-Line,” a series of four pieces of equipment that will allow the plastics reclaimer to process dirty materials. The project budget is about $1.4 million.

Organics

Grimm’s Fuel Co.: The company received $750,000 for its $1.5 million project to upgrade its compost system from static piles to aerated static pile composting, which uses pipe systems to oxygenate the piles. The project will reduce odors and increase yard debris composting capacity by between 50% and 60%. The money is for Phase II of a larger upgrade project.

Recology Oregon Compost: The company received grants for two separate projects. Metro awarded it $750,000 for a $1.5 million project to expand the Aumsville compost facility. The project will boost capacity to compost residential and commercial food scraps and yard debris by 44,000 tons per year.

Separately, Metro awarded the company a $750,000 grant for a $1.5 million project to expand the North Plains compost facility. The project will expand capacity for food scraps and yard debris composting by 24,000 tons per year.

C&D debris

City of Roses Disposal and Recycling: The company received a $312,000 grant for a project totaling $623,000. The project will install an elevated sort line to replace the existing floor sort process, increasing recovery of construction and demolition debris and other materials.

GreenWay Recycling: Metro provided a $750,000 grant for the $1.5 million project to install a new material recovery system for C&D debris.