330,000 TPA Material Recycling Facility Open in Sun Valley, California
City of Industry, California based waste and recycling firm, Athens Services has opened a new 80,000 square foot (7430 square metre) Materials Recycling Facility (MRF) in Sun Valley that is designed to process more than 330,000 tons (272,000 tonnes) of mixed-waste per year. The Sun Valley MRF represents a $50 million investment by Athens and features equipment supplied by Eugene, Oregon based recycling equipment manufacturer, Bulk Handling Systems (BHS), including advanced optical sorting and diversion technologies, to divert as much material as possible from area landfills. Athens explained that construction of the 1500 ton per day (1360 tonne per day) facility began in October 2013, using specifications to achieve Silver LEED® certification, for which it is currently awaiting. The fully enclosed building will be powered with 200 kW of rooftop solar. LEED features include lighting and cooling efficiency measures, bicycle racks and lockers, electric vehicle charging stations, and low-VOC building materials. Able to process 70 tons (63.5 tonnes) of mixed waste materials per hour, the system features BHS disc-screen, Nihot air and NRT optical sorting technology. “Athens Services believes strongly in investing in the latest technologies to improve our processes and ensure the diversion of as much waste as possible from area landfills,” said Greg Loughnane, president, Athens Services. Athens said that it currently maintains the largest recycling infrastructure of any company operating in the Southern California market. With the addition of this new facility, it will have a recycling processing capacity of 2 million tons (1.81 million tonnes) per year. “Athens’ growth in the region is testament to the City’s commitment to achieve Zero Waste,” continued Loughnane. “We don’t own any landfills. Our focus has always been exclusively on responsible waste collection and investing in the newest technologies to recover as much material as possible for other uses.” Currently the City of Los Angeles diverts 76.4% of its waste, according to the Bureau of Sanitation’s “Zero Waste” 2013 Progress Report. When the City first started tracking waste diversion in 1990, the rate was 20.6%. In 2013, the City passed an initiative to achieve Zero Waste by 2025. “This facility is an example of a forward-thinking company deploying advanced technology to extract maximum value from the waste stream,” commented BHS CEO Steve Miller. Read More BHS to Equip $60m CarbonLITE PET Plastic Bottle Recycling Facility in Texas Los Angeles based PET bottle recycling company, CarbonLITE Recycling has signed contracts with Eugene, Oregon based recycling equipment manufacturer, Bulk Handling Systems (BHS) for the supply of primary process equipment to be installed in its new plastic recycling facility in Abilene, Texas. Republic Services Upgrades 400 TPD Material Recycling Facility in North Carolina Republic Services has dedicated its newly expanded and upgraded 400 ton per day Conover material recycling facility (MRF) in Catawba County, North Carolina. BHS Installs 30,000 TPA Material Recycling Facility in California Bakersfield, California based Metropolitan Recycling, a joint venture formed by five privately held local recycling companies, has opened a new state-of-the-art 50,000 square foot Material Recycling Facility).