City of Industry, CA-based Athens Services announces the opening of a new 80,000-square-foot Materials Recovery Facility (MRF) in Sun Valley that is designed to process more than 330,000 tons of mixed-wasteper year. Construction of the facility began in October 2013 and the facility began accepting materials this week. The Sun Valley MRF represents a $50 million investment by Athens and features state-of-the-art equipment, including advanced optical sorting and diversion technologies, which allows the company to divert as much material as possible from area landfills. The facility, which will accept 1,500 tons of waste per day, was designed to meet Silver LEED® specifications (awaiting certification). The fully enclosed building will be powered with 200kw of rooftop solar. LEED features include lighting and cooling efficiency measures, bicycle racks and lockers, electric vehicle charging stations, and low-VOC building materials.
The 70 tph mixed-waste materials recovery facility was designed, engineered, manufactured and installed by Eugene, Ore.-based Bulk Handling Systems (BHS). The system features world-class equipment to separate commodities from the waste stream, including BHS disc-screen, Nihot air and NRT optical sorting technology. “Athens Services believes strongly in investing in the latest technologies to improve our processes and ensure the diversion of as much waste as possible from area landfills,” said Greg Loughnane, president, Athens Services. “Whether that be building new ultramodern facilities or upgrading existing ones – we keep our finger on the pulse of the latest advancements in the industry.”
“This facility is an example of a forward-thinking company deploying advanced technology to extract maximum value from the waste stream,” said BHS CEO Steve Miller. “Athens Services should be commended on opening what is one of the most advanced materials recovery facilities in the world.” Athens currently maintains the largest recycling infrastructure of any company operating in the Southern California market. With the addition of this new facility, Athens will have a recycling processing capacity of two million tons per year of solid waste management (MSW), continuing its commitment to build the largest municipal solid waste management infrastructure in the greater Los Angeles area.
“Athens’ growth in the region is testament to the City’s commitment to achieve Zero Waste,” said Loughnane. “We don’t own any landfills. Our focus has always been exclusively on responsible waste collection and investing in the newest technologies to recover as much material as possible for other uses.” Currently the City of Los Angeles diverts 76.4 percent of its waste, according to the Bureau of Sanitation’s “Zero Waste” 2013 Progress Report. When the City first started tracking waste diversion in 1990, the rate was 20.6 percent. In 2013, the City passed an initiative to achieve Zero Waste by 2025.
For more information, visit www.bhsequip.com.