Itґs being called a “transcyclery” and itґs the first one of its kind at Republic Services Inc.
Transfer stations typically aggregate trash, allowing collection trucks the opportunity to dump their loads and head back out onto the streets for more door-to-door action.
The trash is then usually sent off in tractor-trailers, which can haul larger loads less expensively to landfills.
But a new facility in Pennsylvania is taking the transfer station concept and applying it to recyclable materials.
Cans and bottles, paper and plastics — those sorts of things — are being handled at what the company says is a first for the second-largest solid waste management company in the country.
Located at the Modern landfill in York, Pa., the new million-dollar facility is handling about 70 to 75 tons of single-stream recyclables per day, sending them off to a materials recovery facility about 85 miles east in King of Prussia, Pa.
“The old days of everything going in the landfill are over,” said Tim OґDonnell, general manager of the landfill where the transcyclery is located.
And gone are the days when trash companies have to decide whether recycling is part of their core business, he said.
“We see this as a permanent thing,” he said. “Good for the environment. а Itґs also good business now, too.”
Healthy commodity prices have helped make an economic case for recycling for some time now, but OґDonnell said his company is investing in recycling and places like the transcyclery to offer the service profitably even when prices moderate.
“Typically, you’re not seeing transfer stations being built at landfills,” OґDonnell said. “Whatґs unique about it, and itґs really happening in the marketplace in Pennsylvania, weґre starting to see a significant investment by the private sector in the recycling infrastructure.”
As area president for Republic Services operations in eastern Pennsylvania and New Jersey, Dean DiValerio sees the opportunity to construct these recycling transfer stations elsewhere.
The economics of such an approach, especially when commodity prices are healthy, are compelling.
“Well, letґs put it this way,” DiValerio said, “the million dollar investment into the facility is an investment weґre going to pay back in a very, very short period of time.
“It really allows us to expand our service offerings at competitive rates due to the fact that we have the ability to internalize volumes versus delivering into third-party sites. So thatґs good for our customers, and thatґs good for the organization, obviously, and for our shareholders,” DiValerio said.
Creating recycling transfer stations creates what the area manager called “a great deal of flexibility” in how the company can handle those materials.
While DiValerio has yet to crunch the numbers beyond the 85 miles between York and King of Prussia, he said the transcyclery concept could work to connect company operations well beyond that range.
“Most likely, we could probably make the economics of this work up to 150, even maybe up to 175 miles,” he said.
Funneling more recyclables into centralized facilities helps those sites become more profitable and can allow for expansion.
The economic benefits of this approach also could allow the company to expand recycling services that did not make economic sense under a previous approach. That could include, for example, offering single-stream recycling services to commercial customers, OґDonnell said.
Internalizing recycling volumes щ handling them at your own facilities — allows for higher profit margins because third parties and their need to make a profit are not involved.
“When you internalize and you have vertical integration, even when the prices do dip, you can control your costs a lot more effectively when you are controlling both ends of the market,” OґDonnell said.
Based on the early results of the Modern landfill site, Republic Services already is looking at constructing a similar facility at its Conestoga landfill in Morgantown, Pa., located about an hour away.
Source: Waste & Recycling News
By Jim Johnson