The equipment upgrades will allow the MRF to recycle more types of plastics, including polypropylene plastic bottles, jars, jugs and tubs. | Ken Wolter/Shutterstock
WM has finished $23 million in automation updates at its Pittsburgh MRF, increasing the facility’s capacity by 10 tons of material per hour. Continue Reading
An EverestLabs robot performs quality control on the aluminum can stream at the LRS sorting center in Chicago. | Courtesy of EverestLabs
Boosted by aluminum industry funding, MRF operator LRS has installed an EverestLabs robot at its Chicago sorting facility, aiming to reduce the number of aluminum cans that are lost due to missorting. Continue Reading
Atlantic Coast Recycling’s new facility can process over 50 tons of recyclables per hour. | Courtesy of Atlantic Coast Recycling
Atlantic Coast Recycling reopened its recycling processing facility in Passaic, New Jersey, after a year-long redevelopment totaling $47 million. Continue Reading
EverestLabs’s data suggests that 3.6 million tons of aluminum, PET, HDPE and PP are collected and sent to MRFs each year, but about 960,000 of those tons end up in the disposal stream. | Graham Corney/Shutterstock
Of the aluminum cans, PET, HDPE and PP that reach a MRF, 27% ends up still going to disposal, according to a recent report from Robotics supplier EverestLabs. Continue Reading
Panelist Rebecca Hu said during the session that AI is moving beyond robotics and the technology is on track to provide data and create partnerships that could improve the whole value chain. | Big Wave Productions/Resource Recycling
Artificial intelligence is a key element of increasing plastic recycling, panelists at the 2024 Plastics Recycling Conference in Grapevine, Texas, said last month. Continue Reading
In the latest edition of the annual survey, 58% of respondents were from the public sector, 12% were glass manufacturers, and 10% were MRFs. | Michael Warwick/Shutterstock
The vast majority of residents expect to be able to recycle glass, and concern about glass recycling programs has fallen sharply, the Glass Recycling Coalition’s 2023 Glass Recycling Survey found. Continue Reading
The newly instated rules cover end markets, performance standards and several other key issues. | Grindstone-Media-Group/Shutterstock
Of the states that have passed extended producer responsibility laws for packaging, Oregon just became the first to approve a round of administrative rulemaking.
Robotics from Glacier can be made to fit any belt width and can target more than 30 distinct materials. | Courtesy of Glacier
The co-founders of emerging sortation robotics supplier Glacier say their robots provide an immediate quality benefit with a small footprint: They can be placed anywhere a manual sorter would be stationed. Continue Reading
Vinod Singh of Far West Recycling speaks during an Association of Oregon Recyclers presentation on recycling facility battery fires in February. | Dan Holtmeyer/Resource Recycling
At a Portland, Oregon-area transfer station, site superintendent Matt Tracy has noticed smaller lithium-ion batteries often behave like fireworks when they go into thermal runaway: They move erratically and can even become projectiles. Continue Reading
The $150 million price tag on the new Lane County, Oregon, facility will be footed by Bulk Handling Systems and the county. | Courtesy of Bulk Handling Systems
An upcoming facility in Lane County, Oregon, will process mixed waste, commingled recyclables and organics and is projected to boost the county’s diversion rate by as much as 20 percentage points. Continue Reading