Date: June 17, 2009
Source: Waste Management of Michigan
Waste Management Opens Detroit Recycling Center
Facility will manage 150 tons of recyclables each day
City of Detroit officials, Wayne County Executive Robert Ficano and Waste Management Chief Executive Officer David Steiner today celebrated the opening of the Detroit Recycling Center (DRC), a 63,000 square-foot facility on Lynch Road that will manage recyclables for southeast Michigan commercial businesses and residential households.
"Waste Management's Detroit Recycling Center is an example of how Detroit is transforming into an economically diverse metropolitan area," Mayor Bing said. "The company was able to take a large vacant commercial building and turned it into a sustainable business operation."
Waste Management invested $2 million to renovate the building and installed equipment capable of processing up to 150 tons of recyclable material each day. To begin operations WM will employ six persons.
"This facility is an investment in the City of Detroit and all of southeast Michigan," Steiner said. "Waste Management is thrilled to be able to create this facility to help residential and commercial customers throughout the Detroit Metropolitan area 'Think Green.'"
Wayne County Executive Robert Ficano said the facility will help commercial and industrial businesses in the county realize more sustainable operations.
"Recycling is becoming increasingly important as businesses, counties and cities seek to reduce their environmental impact," Ficano said. "This facility will make Wayne County a 'greener" place to do business by giving Waste Management's local customers an increased opportunity to recycle."
Initially, the DRC facility will manage cardboard, office paper, shredded paper and industrial plastics from Waste Management's southeast Michigan customers. The company hopes to expand the facility's operations to accommodate additional materials, including materials from the upcoming City of Detroit pilot recycling collection program.
Waste Management serves many private businesses in Detroit and currently provides significant levels of solid waste services for the Department of Public Works (DPW), Greater Detroit Resource Recovery Authority (GDRRA) and the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department (DWSD). One of the company's major facilities, featuring a transfer station and hauling company, has operated continuously in the City of Detroit for more than three decades.
Detroit Recycling Facility Operations
Upon arrival at the Detroit Recycling Facility, all trucks are weighed to determine the amount of recyclable material being delivered for processing. These truck scales are connected to computers that automatically record the weights for the trucks and the amount of materials in them. After weighing in, trucks then proceed to the tipping floor to unload their materials. Recycled materials are pushed onto a 30 foot-long conveyor system that feeds into elevated sorting equipment.
The 25-foot high sorting equipment passes the material over a series of specifically spaced angle screens and large fingered spinning discs to further sort the material.
The materials are then moved to a large industrial baler to compress the various grades of products into bales weighing up to one ton (2,000 lbs.) to allow for easier storage and handling. The balers compress the material into a rectangular chamber and mechanically wrap several metal straps around the bale to hold it tightly together before ejecting a perfectly formed rectangular bale that is stackable and ready for shipment to market.
About Waste Management Recycling
Waste Management is North America's largest recycler of household-generated recyclables, recycling enough newspaper, office paper and cardboard last year to save more than 41 million trees.
We manage more than 7.6 million tons of recyclable commodities in our plants, through our brokerage operations, in our waste-based energy plants, and through our industrial recycling operations. Our efforts save enough energy to power 1.3 million households.
By recycling more than 40,000 tons of aluminum, we save enough energy to run 1.6 million TVs for 13 hours a day for a year. Recycling one aluminum can runs a TV for three hours.
WM Recycle America, Upstream, and Wheelabrator Technologies handled more than 295,000 tons of metals in 2008, thereby reducing greenhouse gases equivalent to taking about 324,000 cars off the road last year.
It would take 99,000 Boeing 737 airplanes to hold the 7.6 million tons of commodities we managed in 2008. We managed enough recyclables to fill the Empire State Building more than 11.4 times last year.
Waste Management of Michigan has been in operation for nearly 40 years and is the largest provider of solid waste collection and recycling services in the state. The company's 1,500 Michigan employees service more than 1,000,000 residential, commercial and industrial customers and 332,000 recycling customers. The company's Michigan operations are part of Waste Management, Inc., North America's largest provider of waste to energy and solid waste collection, disposal and recycling services.
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