Waste Management and WM Recycle America Unveil Single Stream Recycling Facility In Newark
Largest Single Stream Facility Making Recycling Easier for New Jersey Residents and Businesses
NEWARK, NJ, April 30, 2008 -- Waste Management, Inc. (NYSE: WMI) and its wholly owned subsidiary, Waste Management Recycle America, today joined with local officials to celebrate the launch of a new regional, single stream recycling facility in Newark, the largest single stream facility in New Jersey. The Company has invested over $4 million at its St. Charles Street Materials Recovery Facility to install advanced single-stream technology that cleanly and easily separates mixed paper, glass, plastic and metal recyclables for processing and reuse.
Single stream recycling streamlines and simplifies the process of collecting and processing recyclable materials. Residents and businesses can place recyclables in a single container for pickup and no longer need to separate these materials in their home or workplace. When recyclables arrive at WMRA’s Newark recycling facility, advanced technology including magnets, screens and scanners are used to separate, sort and process the materials, which are then shipped out for reuse.
Single stream recycling is proven to increase participation in recycling programs by up to 30% and helps make the process of recycling more efficient and cost effective for businesses and municipalities.
The 110,000-square-foot WMRA Newark facility supports residential and commercial recycling in municipalities and counties throughout New Jersey and has the capacity to process up to 11,000 tons of materials per month.
“WM Recycle America is focused on making it easier for people to recycle, at home or at work,” said Patrick DeRueda, President, Waste Management Recycle America. “By making the process of handling recyclables simpler for New Jersey residents and businesses, this re-tooled facility has the potential to significantly increase local recycling participation rates, enabling us to further reduce waste, recover more material, and improve the effectiveness of municipal and commercial recycling programs.”
With over 30 WMRA single stream recycling facilities currently operating across the country, the Company has an additional six planned for construction or opening this year. These facilities are a part of WMRA’s plan to make it easier for people to recycle – thereby increasing recycling participation rates and recovery of recyclable materials – and help position Waste Management as the first major solid waste company to focus on single stream recycling.
This project is also part of the company’s recently announced sustainability initiative to increase the volume of recyclable materials processed. Waste Management currently manages 8 million tons of recyclables; by 2020 it plans to capture enough of the increasing volumes to process more than 20 million tons.
“At Waste Management, we ‘think green’ in every aspect of our operations,” said Brett Frazier, Senior Vice President – Eastern Group, Waste Management. “We are committed to being a good steward of the environment and to making our communities safer, cleaner and better places to live and work. We believe our single stream system will support increased participation in recycling and help us all achieve a cleaner, greener New Jersey.”
About Waste Management and WM Recycle America, L.L.C.
Waste Management, based in Houston, Texas, is the leading provider of comprehensive waste management services in North America. Our subsidiaries provide collection, transfer, recycling and resource recovery, and disposal services. We are also a leading developer, operator and owner of waste-to-energy and landfill gas-to-energy facilities in the United States. Our customers include residential, commercial, industrial, and municipal customers throughout North America. More information about how Waste Management Thinks Green® can be found at www.wm.com.
WM Recycle America is a wholly owned subsidiary of Waste Management and is the largest recycler in North America. WM Recycle America’s business lines include processing many types of consumer-generated recyclables and finding the best markets for the recyclable commodities produced. In its capacity of providing processing and marketing services, WM Recycle America offers a wide variety of recycling options for municipal, manufacturing, commercial and residential customers.
