MRF opens in Pensacola, Florida

The Emerald Coast Utilities Authority (ECUA), Pensacola, Florida, has announced its new material recovery facility (MRF) has begun operations, processing 25 tons per hour (tph) of single-stream recyclables. 

Designed, manufactured and installed by Eugene, Oregon-based Bulk Handling Systems (BHS), the recycling system is expected to process 40,000 tons annually. 

Steve Sorrell, ECUA executive director, says opening the $10.6 million MRF has helped the ECUA to advance its recycling program.

“Building this facility has been instrumental in eliminating our reliance on outside contractors for the processing of this region’s recyclables,” Sorrell says. “Now we can focus on what’s really important: keeping recyclable materials out of the landfills and putting them to good use once again.”

The new system features screen and optical separation technologies from the BHS Family of Cos., including BHS, National Recovery Technologies (NRT), Nashville, Tennessee, and Nihot, based in Amsterdam. This equipment helps to recover more than 95 percent of the available recyclables, BHS says.

Recovered glass is purified with a Nihot glass cleanup system, allowing ECUA to maximize profitability from this fraction. Advanced automation and support capabilities including a BHS Total Control^™ system and NRT Connect^™ enable the plant to automatically report on system performance and send proactive alerts to the operations team and BHS Total Support^™ technicians. In addition, the BHS Metering Bin Liberator Class is equipped with bag-ripping teeth to release bagged materials and facilitate effective downstream separation. 

ECUA serves more than 75,000 customers in Escambia County and 21,000 in neighboring Santa Rosa County, all of which are offered recycling pickup along with regular waste services. 

“Because resources are limited, our company's focus is capturing value that might otherwise be lost,” BHS Director of Sales Ted Pierpont says. “BHS is delighted to work with ECUA to bring this modern facility to the Emerald Coast region as a key component of their comprehensive recycling program. Residents and visitors alike are encouraged to use recycling bins with confidence in the knowledge that materials will be efficiently sorted and directed to nearby manufacturers and other markets.” 

The new MRF is a component of ECUA’s comprehensive recycling plan. In addition to its voluntary recycling program launched in 2009, the authority also recycles yard waste through a biosolids composting operation, provides weekly bulk waste collection and a weekly bulk recycling program on a call-in basis, all as part of its regular residential solid waste collection service.