Republic Services Inc. today unveiled what it's calling the "largest recycling operation in the world."
The Phoenix-based company's Newby Island Resource Recovery Park in Milpitas, Calif., will be able to process up to 110 tons of multiple waste streams per hour and divert at least 80% of material collected, according to Republic.
It will process all the commercial waste generated by businesses in San Jose, Calif. Until now, the company said, San Jose's commercial waste was managed by 20 different haulers with four to six of them providing standard garbage and recycling services.
The facility also includes capacity for up to 120,000 tons per year of residential single-stream material, with expected recovery rates of 95%.
95% single-stream residential diversion rate capacity
80% commercial diversion rate capacity
60,000 bolts in the system
6,000 amps of electricity
307 motors
159 conveyors
110 tons per hour
The system will feature four processing lines: a residential single-stream line, a commercial single-stream line, a commercial dry recyclables line and a commercial wet recyclables line, according to Bulk Handling Systems, which designed, manufactured and installed the automated system. Newby Island will also have a glass clean up system and a shared container line featuring seven optical sorting units.
The conveyors alone, if laid end to end, would stretch 1 1/2 miles, more than twice the length of the suspension span of the Golden Gate Bridge.
Courtesy, Bulk Handling Systems
Newby Island will feature four processing
lines, a glass clean up system and a container line featuring
seven optical sorting units. "It truly is the first of its kind and is a fantastic example of how the scope of our industry is expanding to recover materials from a wide variety of waste streams," said BHS CEO Steve Miller in a statement earlier this year announcing his company's participation in the project.
Newby Island, located in Milpitas, encompasses the local hauling, recyclery, composting facility and landfill. It also will be the first commercial scale dry fermentation anaerobic digestion facility in the United States, turning organic waste into renewable energy and compost, according to a memo earlier this year from the city.
The number of materials recycled and composted annually would cover 500 football fields and amount to more than 400 pounds per person in San Jose, the company said.
"Our businesses and community will benefit from this new approach to commercial waste recycling," San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed said in a statement. "The new service will include the recycling of organic waste which will help businesses and the city alike achieve their sustainability goals."
San Jose's "Green Vision" goal is to divert 100% of waste from landfills and convert it in to energy. In 2007, the most recent data available, San Jose had a 63% diversion rate from landfills.
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