USA recycling recognition
The USA’s Glass Recycling Coalition (GRC) has awarded its first gold level MRF Glass Certification to materials recovery facilities at Rumpke Waste & Recycling and Sims Municipal Recycling. Two Sims Municipal Recycling MRFs and three Rumpke Waste & Recycling MRFs received this honour for their processes for cleaning up glass and integrated beneficiation.
“These MRFs are leading the way by not only cleaning up glass in the MRF but their integrated glass beneficiation ensures a higher quality glass” said Jim Nordmeyer, VP Global of Sustainability, O-I Glass and GRC Leadership Committee.
Both Sims Municipal Recycling and Rumpke Waste & Recycling have a pre-cleaning process to remove glass early. The MRF glass is then taken to a company-owned glass processing operation for further clean-up, colour sorting and marketability. End markets for these facilities range from furnace-ready bottle-to-bottle options, glassfibre and roadbed.
“Environmental sustainability is a core pillar of our company mission” commented Bill Rumpke Jr, President and CEO of Rumpke. “We continue to invest in recycling and look for innovative ways to put material to good use. Over the last 10 years, we made significant investments to operate the most technologically advanced recycling systems in our service footprint.”
Family-owned and operated, Rumpke Waste & Recycling boasts a state-of-the-art glass recycling beneficiation plant in Dayton, Ohio. The Dayton plant produces 60,000-70,000 tons per year for glass insulation and bottle manufacturing.
“It made financial sense to build our own glass beneficiation plant; however, that may not be the same for other facilities based factors like volume and proximity to glass cullet customers” commented Tom Outerbridge, General Manager of Sims Municipal Recycling. “In those instances, we encourage communities to remain committed to glass recycling and to reimagine how to best capture this resource given local and regional conditions.”
SMR’s New Jersey location is home to SMR’s beneficiation facility for all of the curbside glass SMR produces at its NY-NJ MRFs. The glass plant includes optical sorters to colour sort cullet for sale to glass furnaces and cleaning equipment to make glass aggregate from the glass that cannot be colour sorted. SMR’s glass plant processes more than 100,000 tons per year and can ship by rail and barge in addition to trucks, to extend the market reach for processed glass.
