Dive Brief:
- Salt Lake City, UT-based Momentum Recycling announced it will open a new bottle-to-bottle recycling plant in Broomfield, CO on Feb. 22, according to a press release. This facility will be the first of its kind in the state, and the company's first facility outside of Utah.
- This new facility will recycle 49,000 tons of bottle glass each year, which will increase Colorado's glass recycling rate from 6.25% to 21.65%.
- Momentum already has a strong footprint in Colorado and currently works with communities from Boulder County, Larimer County and Denver County to divert glass from the landfill. Momentum has also partnered with Waste Management, EcoCycle, Alpine Waste & Recycling and other companies to improve recycling practices among Colorado residents.
Dive Insight:
While some have considered glass to be the "scourge" of recycling due to how difficult it is to process and profit from, companies like Momentum have faced this challenge head on with successful results. Since it was founded in 2008, Momentum has continuously pursued new glass recycling initiatives that have diverted millions of pounds of the material, despite pessimism from a majority of the industry.
Momentum will work with Alpine to boost operations at its new facility. In late 2016, Alpine announced it will retrofit its existing MRF in the Denver area to accept glass loads, and these loads will be sorted and recycled for bottle manufacturing at Momentum's Broomfield location. Alpine noted that this partnership was an "innovative way" to keep the material out of the landfill, and the Colorado location is also prime due to the proximity of two bottle manufacturing plants.
Currently, the state averages a 15% diversion rate, which desperately needs to be increased to keep up with other regions across the country. Even in leading cities like Denver the diversion rate is an "abysmal" 18%, therefore efforts like glass recycling — or unrelated efforts to increase C&D waste diversion — are crucial for the state to keep its head above water.
