DES MOINES, Iowa -- A recycling committee from Metro Waste Authority looks to the future of recycling in the metro. They visited three Material Recovery Facilities to see the latest technology and try to decide if the independent government agency should build a "MRF" of its own.
The recycling industry faces challenges across the country after China stopped taking recycling from the United States last year.
Central Iowa recycling leaders have found buyers for materials, but the ban from China brought forward a big problem plaguing the industry: contamination. That's when people throw items in the bin that don’t belong.
Metro Waste Authority Executive Director Michael McCoy said, "What we need is a state-of-the-art facility. You cannot recycle or process material in 2019 and 2020 and moving forward with some of that older equipment that is 10 years old."
Metro Waste Authority currently sends recyclables to be processed at Mid-America Recycling in Des Moines. Its contract ends in 2021, and McCoy would like Metro Waste Authority to build its own facility by then.
“Controlling cost and quality of material to buyers. That's been one big problem lately is the buyers are demanding a better quality material, which is going to take higher quality machines and technology. That's what we're lacking right now, in Iowa, in the metro area,” said McCoy.
Members of the recycling committee traveled to Las Vegas in February to see the Southern Nevada Recycling Center. Board Member Dean O’Connor said, “This one was built from the ground up. They built the building, designed the equipment all in one time."
Republic Services opened the recycling center in Las Vegas in 2015. “This is the largest and smartest recycling center in North America,” said Republic Services Community Relations Manager Jeremy Walters.
It features technology like optical sorters. "That material, like plastic bags, the envelope, the pouch, the optical is going to be able to remove that," explained CP Group Sales Engineer Patrick Nicol.
Mid-America Recycling President Mick Barry said, "We actually have optical sorters in the plant now, where we sort the plastics, and we back that technology up with manpower."
Barry said his company would update technology if it had a longer contract. "We're prepared to make a $5 [million] to $10 million investment in the plant now, but we don't know where Metro Waste Authority is going to go," said Barry.
A new Materials Recovery Facility is estimated to cost $24 million.The Metro Waste Authority Board of Directors meets Wednesday, April 17 to decide if it wants to approve a Request for Proposal to seek bids from recycling equipment manufacturers.