Waste Management Unveils Leading-Edge $10 Million Recycling Facility Expansion

Aims for less than 10 percent Readily Recyclable Materials in the residue after processing; Facility design based on findings from StopWaste 2008 Waste Characterization Study

SAN LEANDRO, Calif. – May 6, 2014 – A group of California recycling leaders and Waste Management senior officials gathered to unveil the latest expansion of the Davis Street Resource Recovery Complex. Completed in four months, the high-diversion material recovery facility (MRF) is designed to meet CalRecycle’s CalGreen Construction & Demolition (C&D) and StopWaste’s commercial diversion goals for Alameda County. It is the only MRF in the region that meets both requirements.

“This high-diversion MRF represents a marriage of public policy and engineering design,” said Jack Isola, senior district manager, Davis Street Resource Recovery Complex, Waste Management. “We solicited the recycling expectations of state and local policymakers and built a MRF to exceed those recycling expectations.”

“Investments in facilities like this show that AB 341, legislation for mandatory commercial recycling, is on the right track,” said Caroll Mortensen, Director of CalRecycle. “We need processing capacity in California to capture commodities to keep these resources out of our landfills.”

The StopWaste (Alameda County Waste Management Authority) 2008 Waste Characterization Study provided a blue print to build the high-diversion MRF. The expanded MRF will recover most “Readily Recyclable Materials.” These materials are newspaper, white paper, mixed recyclable paper, cardboard, recyclable glass and metal food and beverage containers, and PET (#1) and HDPE (#2) plastic bottles. The goal is to have less than 10 percent of such materials in the residue after processing up to 1.6 million pounds a day of construction/demolition and dry commercial volumes, more than twice the volume it previously processed.

“Our focus is on providing Alameda County cities with the needed infrastructure to support the diversion programs in place throughout the county,” said Gary Wolff, executive director, StopWaste. “Additional recycling can boost the Alameda County economy by $140 million per year.”

It is the only Alameda County C&D MRF accredited by the Recycling Certification Institute. The expansion includes:

• Vacuum System – Designed to separate film plastics.
• Air Separators – Designed to separate small pieces of paper.
• Magnets – Designed to recover ferrous metal.
• Optical-Sorting Technology – Designed to separate wood and aluminum.
• Vibratory Screen (Small stones/rocks) – Designed to separate small stones/rocks, which will be reused for construction and avoiding use as ADC.
• Vibratory Screen (Wood) – Designed to separate out wood.

“The design takes advantage of the overlaps between commercial discards and those found at a building site,” said Isola. “It enables one facility to capture the cardboard, pallets and plastics and return them to the materials stream for reuse and recycling.”

• Wood becomes mulch (like WM EarthCare™ landscape products) that gardeners and commercial businesses use to reduce their water usage on landscapes.
• Cardboard and plastics are all sent for recycling.
• Concrete is reused onsite or for future building projects (e.g., the first LEED Gold Industrial Building in San Leandro used to transfer organics for composting).

“We have been a supporter of this MRF, having worked with Waste Management since its initial construction in 2002,” said Wolff.

“USGBC congratulates Waste Management on this important achievement that will increase the reuse and recycling of construction waste materials,” said Dan Geiger, Executive Director of U.S. Green Building Council-Northern California Chapter.