Dive Brief:
- Resource Management Group (RMG) has opened a new material recovery facility in San Diego which it says is the first to be built in the city in more than 16 years.
- Using equipment designed and installed by CP Group, the single-stream facility can process up to 15 tons per hour of commercial and multi-family residential material.
- The company's optical sorting technology is designed to handle the variety of mixed materials that are common in these streams, such as loose paper and flexible plastic packaging, with minimal hand-sorting. The system has a diversion rate of more than 90%.
Dive Insight:
This is the latest in a series of new facilities or facility upgrades centered around single-stream processing. While some municipalities and regional authorities see single-stream as ripe for contamination issues, it has become the predominant type of processing in the U.S.
RMG has been in business since 1994 and offers a variety of waste and commodities management services in multiple markets throughout the country. CP Group may be most well known for its work at Republic Services' massive Southern Nevada Recycling Center. The facility's glass recovery equipment is said to be among the most advanced in the country and CP Group's technology for data collection and system control has also been highlighted.
Like many cities, San Diego is currently looking for new ways to reach high "zero waste" diversion rate targets by 2040. The San Diego City Council recently endorsed a plan for city departments to hit 50% diversion by 2020 that will help make progress toward that goal. Having a more advanced MRF in the area to potentially process some of this material will further improve the city's chances of success.
