Recovered Materials Processing Facility
The SWA Recovered Materials Processing Facility (RMPF) receives, sorts, processes, and prepares for market materials collected through the SWA's recycling program. The RMPF is owned by the SWA and operated by a private contractor. It opened in 2009 and replaced the SWA’s previous residential materials recycling facility and commercial materials recycling facility. The nearly 138,000 square foot, $40 MM facility can process up to 975 tons per day. The RMPF processes the following materials:
Containers
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Plastic Containers #1 - #7
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Steel Cans
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Aluminum Cans, Foil and Pie Plates
- Drink
Boxes
- Milk
and Juice Cartons
- Glass
Bottles and Jars
Fiber
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Newspapers
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Magazines/Catalogs
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Unwanted Mail
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School/Office Papers
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Phone
Books
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Paper
Bags
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ALL Cardboard Boxes
(includes beverage cartons, tissue boxes, and dry food boxes.
The RMPF has three tipping floors - one for residential fiber on the east end of the facility, one for commercial fiber on the east end of the facility and one for containers on the west end of the facility. Containers are delivered to the facility by a route collection trucks or SWA tractor trailers. The containers are then pushed onto a conveyor belt where bulky non-recyclable material is removed by hand.
The steel is then pulled out using a magnetic conveyor belt, loaded onto a truck and sent to our Ferrous Processing Facility. The remaining material is then conveyed to a sorting room where workers remove unrecyclable residue (trash). The material then continues on to a glass breaker where the glass is broken and crushed. The crushed glass, which looks like sand, is sold to a recycler or sent to the landfill to be used as cover.
Next, an eddy current separator repels the aluminum from the line. The aluminum is sent to a baler, baled and shipped to market. The remaining material, mostly plastic, is sent to a series of Optical Sorters, where the material is scanned and its resin code (the type of plastic) identified. Plastics #1 (PETE) and #2 (HDPE) are pushed off the conveyor belt using blasts of air. Plastics #3 - #7 are hand sorted. The separated material is then conveyed for quality check and then baled for shipment. All recovered materials other than glass, which is loose loaded, are baled prior to being transported to market. The residue, approximately 13% of incoming material, is transported to the landfill or the Renewable Energy Facility for disposal.
Fiber is delivered by a route collection trucks or SWA tractor trailers and deposited on the fiber tipping floor on either the commercial side or the residential side. The material is then loaded onto conveyors which transport the material to a sorting room where workers remove any residue (trash) by hand. Next the material is sent to a Star Screen system, a series of spinning wheels, that separates the paper and cardboard. The paper falls through to a conveyor and is hand sorted one more time before it is baled or loaded into a truck loose. The cardboard “floats” on top of the wheels of the Star Screen and is dropped into a bunker. It too is baled prior to shipping to market.
Materials recovered at the RMPF
are sold to manufacturers who process them to produce new products. The
revenue from the sale of these materials is used to help offset the cost
of the Authority's recycling programs. Although the value of recovered
materials fluctuates with the market, the revenue from the sale of
materials processed at the RMPF is generally sufficient to cover the
owning and operating cost of the facility. Fifty percent of the net
revenue is paid to the cities who deliver recyclables to the SWA.
Click here for more information on
revenue sales of recyclables.
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