WM announced that it has opened a nearly 100,000 square-foot recycling facility in Cleveland. The state-of-the-art technology deployed in the new facility is expected to process up to 420 tons of recyclables per day. The addition of the new WM Cleveland Recycling Facility – with state-of-the-art technology, including glass recovery equipment, optical sorters, non-wrapping screens and ballistic separators – is intended to help allow the region’s recycling programs to expand and produce higher quality material for customers that use the recycled material as feedstock to manufacture new products.
“WM continues its investment in recycling infrastructure with the opening of our new Cleveland Recycling Facility,” said Aaron Johnson, WM Great Lakes Area Vice President. “At our core, WM is a sustainability company, and with this investment, our team is proud to reinforce our commitment to the environment, and our ability to provide a local solution for cutting-edge single stream recycling in NE Ohio, as we work with our communities to drive circularity and help give materials a second life.”
WM’s investments in new and upgraded recycling facilities, including WM Cleveland Recycling Facility, are intended to:
- Increase overall recycling capacity in this market
- Increase the capture rate of both traditional recycling materials, and evolving into accepting materials that are traditionally difficult to recycle (such as film plastic)
- Expand the list of acceptable recyclable material that WM manages for its customers
- Improve the quality, value and marketability of the finished recycled bales benefiting the economics of recycling for its commercial customers and municipal communities
- Allow WM to manage inbound contamination or “non-recyclables” more efficiently and provide opportunities to educate customers on how to recycle right.
“The Cuyahoga County Solid Waste District is honored to partner with the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency to assist WM in the development of their new Recycling Facility within Cuyahoga County,” said Elizabeth (Beth) Biggins-Ramer, Cuyahoga County Solid Waste District Executive Director. “This facility will increase recycling capacity within the County and the region and assist in furthering local sustainability efforts. We look forward to working with WM to promote Recycling Right education and bettering our environment.”
This project is part of WM’s previously announced enterprise-wide plans to invest over $1 billion in recycling infrastructure, including approximately 40 planned new or automated recycling facilities expected to add 2.8M incremental tons managed by 2026. With the demand for recycled content products expected to rise, the investments are expected to enable WM to capture more recycled materials and increase access to recycling for its customers.