Phoenix-headquartered Republic Services has announced that it has upgraded its material recovery facility (MRF) in Sonoma County, California, in an effort to help the county achieve its sustainability goals for years to come. The Sonoma County Recycling Center is capable of processing more than 200 tons of recyclables per day and is expected to increase recycling capacity in the region, Republic says.

“The new enhanced recycling center offers significant environmental benefits to the community and the customers we are fortunate to serve,” says Mike Caprio, area president of Republic Services. “We now have the ability to increase recycling efforts while diverting valuable materials from the landfill. The facility has the potential to significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions, which offers a substantial contribution to the community’s climate protection goals.”

The existing 32,000-square-foot plant was expanded by an additional 6,000-square-feet constructed by ET Environmental, headquartered in Atlanta, bringing the new combined square footage to 38,000. The processing system was designed and installed by the CP Group, San Diego.

The facility offers a variety of features to provide flexible processing capabilities, Republic says. The equipment includes two material processing options: The first is an in-feed conveyor for collected commercial materials, such as cardboard, mixed paper, containers, film and plastics. The second is a hopper-fed construction and demolition (also known as C&D) conveyance system with multiple sorting stations.

The system includes a baler for packaging recyclables, such as cardboard and mixed paper. The facility also has a separate bale storage building to protect finished products from rain prior to shipment to market.

The enhancements were part of a three-year Solid Waste Advisory Group (SWAG) collaborative process between multiple municipalities, Sonoma County and a diverse group of public stakeholders. They identified three underserved waste streams—self-haul, commercial dry waste and C&D waste materials—that could be addressed with a robust recycling center and program.

Republic Services of Sonoma County employs 26 employees and serves more than 265 commercial customers and thousands of residents. Republic also operates the Central Landfill and five transfer stations in Sonoma County.

Overall, Republic collects and processes approximately 5 million tons of recyclables per year at 64 recycling centers nationwide. 

Bulk Handling Systems (BHS), Eugene, Oregon, and its wholly owned subsidiary NRT, Nashville, Tennessee,
have announced the introduction of Max-AI technology, an artificial intelligence (AI) that identifies recyclables and other items for recovery. Through deep-learning technology, Max-AI employs both multilayered neural networks and a vision system to see and identify objects similar to the way a person does, the company says. The technology is designed to drive improvements in material recovery facility (MRF) design, operational efficiency, recovery, system optimization, maintenance and more.

The first available machine using Max-AI technology is an autonomous quality control (AQC) unit that sorts container streams following optical sorting. This robotic sorter uses its vision system to see the material, its artificial intelligence to think and identify each item and a robot to pick targeted items. This system is able to make multiple sorting decisions autonomously, for example separating various materials such as thermoform trays, aluminum and fiber while removing residue from a stream of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles. All of this is done at rates exceeding human capabilities, BHS says.

BHS CEO Steve Miller says, “Labor is a significant challenge for MRF operators and it’s obvious that Max will be very beneficial in helping our customers manage that aspect of their business. However, the highest returns will come from complete integration of Max-AI technology throughout every advanced BHS system. Our customers will not only have autonomous sorting but also an intelligent central nervous system that observes what’s happening in the plant in real-time and adjusts process parameters to maximize profits.”

The first commercial AQC unit is already in operation at Athens Services’ MRF in Sun Valley, California. A recipient of the Solid Waste Association of North America (SWANA) Award for Excellence in 2016, Athens was an ideal location for the first installation of Max-AI robotic sorters to complement the advanced screen, air and optical separation technology already in use, BHS says. Integrating seamlessly with the company’s existing NRT optical sorters, Max provides a fully autonomous PET sorting solution, the company adds. 

“This technology was simply not possible until now,” says Thomas Brooks, BHS director of technology development. “Recent advances in computer processing capabilities have enabled us to develop this groundbreaking machine learning platform. Max is more than just a robotic sorter. Max-AI technology will soon become the active brain of our MRFs, controlling various robotic, optical and other sorting equipment, providing real-time material composition analysis, and making autonomous decisions.”

Max is central to BHS’ plan to bring autonomous optimization to MRFs over the coming years, increasing performance and profitability. Roy Miller, BHS vice president of engineering, says he sees this as revolutionary for the recycling industry. “For me, this is the culmination of decades of technological development in recycling. Operating costs will go down while uptime, throughput, recovery and purity will all increase, leading to significant economic benefits for our customers and environmental gains for stakeholders everywhere. This is an exciting time indeed.”

More information is available at max-ai.com.

Watch a video of the Max-AI by clicking below.

CenturyLink Inc., a telecommunications company headquartered in Monroe, Louisiana, has announced that it recycled more than 12 million pounds in 2016.

The company’s recycling sites collected, securely shredded and recycled more than 3 million pounds of paper, saving the equivalent of almost 25,000 trees, according to CenturyLink. In addition to paper, CenturyLink recycled approximately 9 million pounds of a wide range of materials, including metal reels, copper-based materials, precious metals and electronics.

“CenturyLink is actively making choices to lessen our impact on the environment, our recycling program is one of many programs we use,” says Jennifer Scarpino, CenturyLink director of environmental health and safety/business continuity. “We accomplish our sustainability goals through environmental health and safety management programs, collaborative solutions, resources and waste management, as well as technological transformation and climate preparedness.”

Additional CenturyLink environmental initiatives include:

• partnering with other providers and equipment manufacturers of set top boxes and small network equipment to look for ongoing improvements in energy efficiency;
• completing Energy Star certification for 19 data centers, more than any other co-location provider as of the end of 2016 (Energy Star ratings place these data centers in the top 25 percent most energy efficient data centers in the U.S.); and
• implementing initiatives, including decommissioning unused servers and replacing aging equipment with more efficient models, to reduce energy consumption as well as the company’s carbon footprint.

In addition, CenturyLink says it climbed to No. 113 out of the top 500 companies in 2016 from No. 182 in 2015 in Newsweek’s Green Rankings. This ranking comprehensively assesses the environmental performance of the largest publicly traded companies in the world.

Middletown, Ohio-based Cohen Electronics and BlueOak Arkansas have announced an exclusivity contract for the processing of all of Cohen’s circuit board scrap at the BlueOak Arkansas facility. The e-scrap is generated at Cohen’s electronic scrap shredding operation in Middletown, Ohio, and will be converted into precious metal-bearing copper shot produced at the BlueOak facility.

Burlingame, California-based BlueOak’s facility in Osceola, Arkansas, uses what it calls proprietary, environmentally friendly technology to recover strategic metals and precious metals from end-of-life electronic scrap. BlueOak is backed by investors that include the Arkansas Teachers Retirement System and KPCB, a California-based venture capital fund. The facility is expected to be fully commissioned and operational in the second quarter of 2017.

“BlueOak’s vision is to ensure the secure and sustainable recovery of strategic metals contained in end-of-life electronics within the United States,” says Ahab Garas, BlueOak Arkansas’ CEO. “Our goal is to set and enforce the highest possible standards in secure data destruction and sustainable e-recycling.”

Cohen Electronics, the e-scrap processing division of Cohen (formerly Cohen Brothers), says it is committed to ensuring the highest possible standards for secure data destruction and sustainability within its IT asset disposition and e-waste recycling operations.

“We believe there can be no shortcuts when it comes to data security and environmental standards,” says Tyler Fojtik, Cohen’s vice president of finance. “Our clients trust Cohen to provide a safe, secure, and environmentally-responsible end-of-life solution for their IT assets,” he continues. “Our new partnership with BlueOak further enhances our best-in-class destruction and recycling services and in doing so helps us raise the bar for secure and sustainable e-waste processing.”