Waste Commission of Scott County, Iowa, reopens MRF

Pictured above, from left: Marty Davis, president of Midland Davis; Kathy Morris, director of Scott County Waste Commission; Honorable Frank Klipsch, the mayor of Davenport, Iowa; and Jeff Snyder, a buyer for Pratt’s Valparaiso, Indiana, mill.

The Scott Area Recycling Center, Davenport, Iowa, recently hosted a grand reopening of its material recovery facility (MRF), which was updated earlier this year to process singe-stream recyclables. The MRF, originally opened in 1995 to process dual-stream recyclables, now can process 10 tons per hour of residential single-stream material.

The equipment and changes to the facility were funded through a general obligation bond issued by Scott County that was secured with revenue agreements from the Waste Commission of Scott County and the cities of Davenport, Bettendorf and other commission members. The recycling equipment cost $3.1 million, which facility construction costing $4.6 million.

The facility design team included Foth Infrastructure and Environment LLC, De Pere, Wisconsin; FEH Design, Sioux City, Iowa; and KJWW Engineering Consultants, Des Moines, Iowa. Tricon Construction Group, with locations in Dubuque and Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and the CP Group, San Diego, were responsible for facility construction.

The MRF includes an OCCScreen to remove cardboard, a CPScreen to separate 2D material from 3D material, an overbelt magnet, an eddy current separator and a glass cleanup system from the CP Group.

On hand for the ribbon cutting, along with members of the community and government officials, were Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries (ISRI) and ISRI Paper Stock Industries Chapter members Midland Davis, headquartered in Moline, Illinois, and Pratt Industries, headquartered in Conyers, Georgia.

Midland Davis has a long-term fiber marketing agreement with Scott County and recently partnered with Pratt Industries to purchase of much of the county’s paper. Within hours of curbside pickup, the paper is sorted, baled and shipped to Pratt's new greenfield mill in Valparaiso, Indiana. Then within approximately 48 hours of receipt, it is made into new boxes that are sold primarily within the region, the companies say.