David Taylor is the site manager of Waste Management?s single-stream recycling facility in Elkridge. The $7 million, 50,000-square-foot facility is the largest single-stream recycling center in the nation and the first of its kind in the Baltimore-Washington area. The facility has the capacity to process up to 1,000 tons of recyclables per day.
Taylor spoke with The Examiner about single-stream recycling.
Q How does the single-stream recycling technology work?
A The machinery we have, you can combine all of the products the city is collecting. When the product reaches the facility, it?s put on a conveyor belt and goes through a series of screens that have specific openings to separate the items ? the bottles and cans, the paper, the cardboard and the plastics. When the products are separated, they?re stored and fed to a baler. The machinery runs about 20 hours a day.
Q What does Waste Management do with the products after they have been sorted?
A We?ll sell the paper to paper mills, and they pulp the products and make it into fresh paper. We?ll sell the cans back to companies like Coca-Cola and Anheuser-Busch. The plastics will be separated and sold as well.
Q What are the terms of the contract signed with the city?
A It?s a revenue-based contract, so the city does not pay us money. We?ll sort the products and sell them to companies to be reused, and the city will get a percentage of the revenue. It does cost us a certain amount to operate the machinery and pay the staff, so we?ll also take a percentage as an operating fee.
Q What are the advantages for municipalities of going to single-stream recycling?
A Single-stream really is the future of recycling. In a dual-stream system, paper and plastics had to be collected separately, which led to more, longer hours for employees. It?s much more economical for municipalities.
