Republic Services believes a different sorting approach can bring about positive change.
Associate Editor Jared Paben has worked for Resource Recycling since December 2014. Most of his earlier career was spent as a reporter for the daily newspaper in Bellingham, Wash., but he also has experience working for the Oregon volunteerism commission and for Oregon nonprofits serving low-income populations. He can be contacted at [email protected].Republic Services believes a different sorting approach can bring about positive change.
Republic Services’ recycling business brought in $68.6 million in revenue during the third quarter, down 10% year over year. | Resource Recycling file photo
Some of the largest publicly traded garbage and recycling companies got pinched by recycling markets during the third quarter. Others got flat-out hammered.
Waste Management’s quarterly recycling revenues dropped 27% year over year | Ken Wolter/Shutterstock
North America’s largest garbage and recycling company experienced deepening pain from depressed recycling markets during the third quarter.
Plastic-sorting robots are just the latest upgrade for Recology’s San Francisco MRF. | Courtesy of Recology.
A West Coast operator installed four artificial intelligence units at its high-tech San Francisco MRF. A company manager explained how the machinery is working in conjunction with optical sorters to boost recovery and reduce contamination.
It may have low-tech lines and buildings going back four decades, but the dual-stream MRF in Berkeley, Calif. produces clean material that meets the demands of buyers today.
A partisan City Council dispute in San Diego threatens a contract with the city’s MRF operator, and Montgomery, Ala.’s mixed-waste MRF is on the way to reopening.
When it first opened more than a decade ago, the Durham Region Material Recovery Facility (MRF) in Ontario was Canada’s first dual-stream facility to use an optical sorter.
This story has been corrected.
A major Iowa newspaper has explored how hammered recyclables markets forced Mid America Recycling to send paper to landfills this year.
Thirty trash and recyclables collectors were killed on the job in 2017, roughly equal to the number who lost their lives the year before, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
GreenWaste Recovery, located in the heart of Silicon Valley, has been known in the industry for its use of advanced technologies to recover materials. That company characteristic was recently bolstered by GreenWaste’s move to bring on another innovation: automated sorters with artificial intelligence.