Recycling and waste management company Republic Services and environmental technology firm Lab USA have opened an ash metal recovery facility at a Washington landfill. The facility, at Roosevelt Regional Landfill, will recover metals found in ash previously lost through traditional methods of resource recovery.
The facility will process new ash delivered to the Roosevelt Landfill as well as all of the existing ash currently in the landfill. Once recovered, the metals are recycled, shipped to manufacturers and repurposed to make new metal products.
Roosevelt Landfill collects waste from municipalities across Washington and converts the methane gas into renewable energy.
The companies expect the facility will recover and recycle more than 46,200 tons of ferrous metals and 42,900 tons of non-ferrous metals. Ferrous metals are those that contain iron such as steel, stainless steel and cast iron. Non-ferrous metals are those that do not contain iron and do not have a magnetic quality such as aluminum, copper, lead and tin.
According to the American Iron and Steel Institute, the energy consumption of recycling iron is 20 percent lower than that of mining and processing iron from natural resources. The International Copper Association reported that the energy savings from recycling copper is about 60 percent lower that of mining copper from natural resources.
The expected recovery of 4,290 tons of copper could make about 24.9 million linear feet of half-inch copper piping used to carry water in households, the companies say. Reclaiming these metals that would otherwise be landfilled also reduces greenhouse gas emissions.
Zacks’ analyst blog says, “This new facility will not only be environmentally friendly but will also give Republic Services an edge over its peers. The company will be well positioned to expand its client base across the world.”
In November Republic Services opened a new recycling center capable of processing 2 million pounds of recyclable material per day, or 70 tons per hour, and is expected to double recycling capacity in the southern Nevada area.
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