Canadian city inks contract to process recyclables collected in Detroit

The city council for Guelph, Ontario, has approved a contract to process the recyclables collected by Rizzo Environmental Services in the Detroit area. The Ontario-based company Recyclable Material Marketing (ReMM) also is a part of the program and will be involved in brokering the recyclables to end markets.

The contract, which is slated to begin June 1, 2014, is expected to deliver an additional 28,000 metric tons of recyclables to the material recovery facility (MRF), which is owned and operated by the city of Guelph.

The increase in the recyclables shipped to the MRF will require the city to open a second shift and will result in the facility reaching about 95 percent of its processing capacity. The revenue generated by the program is expected to be $300,000 per year.

Additionally, a separate contract signed by the city will result in the backhauling of residuals from the MRF to Detroit, where it will be used at an energy-from-waste facility. The residual material is expected to total 22,500 metric tons per year. The city says it has determined that the cost to ship the material back to Detroit is less than the cost to landfill the material.