The new face of recycling is "pure play"

by Keith Barker

Since the company’s inception in 2011, Charlotte, North Carolina-based ReCommunity has become North America’s largest “pure-play” recycler. And the company is growing rapidly. Built upon roots in waste management from as far back as 1927, ReCommunity currently owns and operates 34 facilities in 13 U.S. states (soon to be 35 in 14 states, with a new facility under construction in San Antonio, Texas) and has more than 1,500 employees.

The organization is unique in the realm of large waste recovery companies in that it does not own landfills or collection trucks. This, says Executive VP of Revenue and Growth Jeff Fielkow means that they have no “conflict of interest” like many of the large waste management companies currently operating in North America, and it allows ReCommunity to maintain a singular focus on maximizing recovery of residential curbside recyclables for partner communities.

“By ‘pure-play’ we refer to the fact that our only focus is to divert material from the landfill, recover the most amount of material possible at the highest quality, and then take it to market for the optimal value,” explains Fielkow. 

“It means we do not have a built-in, conflicted business model like others in the industry, whether they own a landfill or a hauling business or a paper mill. “While the traditional business model does work, we see our model as the most effective when it comes to forming the right public-private partnerships, because we are fully aligned with our municipal customers and we only ‘succeed’ when pure diversion is achieved,” continues Fielkow.

“We don’t have any other model in our platform that conflicts with delivery of those results.”

ReCommunity currently processes approximately 1.8 million tonnes of materials per year, and since 2012 has opened or retrofitted a total of eight MRFs, including new 100,000+ tonnes per year facilities in Beacon, New York and Tuczon, Arizona. Most recently, the company’s 34th facility began operations in Wilmington, Delaware, where ReCommunity repurposed two existing buildings and installed a state-of-the-art processing system.

The new MRF in Wilmington is part of a 20-year agreement with the Delaware Solid Waste Authority (DSWA) that will serve the recycling needs of the entire state and will process more than 100,000 tonnes per year.  

Retrofit rules 
DSWA says they have traditionally assembled their recyclable materials collected in Delaware at one of two transfer stations and then transported the material to ReCommunity’s MRFs located in Pennsylvania and New Jersey as well as other MRFs in the surrounding area. The new, retrofitted facility now keeps recyclables entirely in state, immediately creating more than 35 new jobs in Delaware, which the company anticipates increasing to around 70+ jobs over time.  

ReCommunity invested $15 million to repurpose Delaware’s existing 64,000-square-foot facility, installing state-of-the art BHS (Bulk Handling Systems) equipment, including screening, optical and air sorting, and controls technology that recovers more than 90 percent of incoming recyclables. The DRC system will identify, separate and recover aluminum, plastics, paper, cardboard, tin and glass collected from throughout the state, and is capable of processing 35+ tonnes per hour, with the capacity to handle more than 160,000 tons per year. 

“We built Delaware with the future in mind, and we’ll probably process 90 to 100,000 tons in the coming year,” says Fielkow. “The facility has two full-fledged, integrated processing lines built in, with lots of automation. We’ve got five optical sorters that help the manual sortation, but really what makes it unique is the way the facility is laid out.

“It does an amazing job separating two-dimensional material, like newspaper, cardboard and office paper, from all of the 3D items like containers. It does it so efficiently, and with such a high degree of accuracy. We have been very pleased with the way the system in Delaware has been performing in its short life cycle so far.”

Fielkow says ReCommunity is 100 percent “equipment agnostic” and that when it comes to building their systems, they have used systems from all of the major MRF system and technology providers including BHS, CP Group, Machinex and Bollegraaf. He emphasizes that there is great competition out there, which is good for everyone.

“In Delaware, BHS delivered a system that virtually within the first few weeks, hit their expectations,” says Fielkow. “The start-up phase was shorter than the average we’ve ever gone through, and that I would say, is attributed to BHS’ engineering, their install team, and the quality of work put out. 

“What makes any system stand out is the thoughtfulness of the design and that’s a shared responsibility between ourselves, especially our engineers, along with the vendors we work with. BHS was very collaborative, we shared great ideas, and Delaware is the outcome of what happened. It is one of our top two or three most advanced systems, and probably the most automated we have.”

ReCommunity has completed many retrofit projects since 2011, many of which have been conversions from dual stream systems to single stream, including facilities in Charlotte, North Carolina, Athens, Georgia, Detroit, Michigan, Cape May, New Jersey, and before the completion of the Delaware facility in 2013, one in Memphis, Tennessee.

“It’s really fun when you get to build a facility from a slab of dirt, and start from the ground up but in this industry, that is the exception, not the rule,” Fielkow explains. “More times than not, you are working with an existing facility and a public partner, and you are retrofitting sites.”   

Beacon New York – building  from the ground up
In Beacon, New York, ReCommunity is using a CP-designed system. The facility was built from scratch for a wide-ranging incoming stream, sourced from a large area, and largely from the IC&I and private sector, rather than from materials collected by a single, municipal customer, like at the Delaware facility. 

“We also have great things to say about our partnership with CP,” says Fielkow. “We’re happy with the way the equipment is operating and our recovery rates. Because material is coming in from a very large geographical area, we don’t always have a consistent stream. The CP system has done a really good job being able to manage the varied stream inputs, and in a very short time, is near the capacity we hoped it would be at – about 25 tons per hour throughput.”  

The “Recovery Revolution”  and the future of recycling
According to ReCommunity CEO James Devlin, their company exists to help partners extract value from their own resources. He says; “Delaware is another shining example of our commitment to ‘Leading the Recovery Revolution’ within forward-thinking communities seeking significant positive gains.” 

Fielkow explains the nature of the “Recovery Revolution”, which he says is a concept envisioned by Rich Rakowski, one of ReCommunity’s founders, and which follows from the industrial and technological revolutions of the 20th century.

“When you fast forward and look at the global economy ten to fifteen years from now, there is a general thesis, and I think it is well supported, that there will be resource scarcity, meaning more pressure for natural resources.

“This is happening because as so many countries start to urbanize, the need for plastics and fibres, for example, puts increased pressure on natural resources. To meet the needs of the future, the ‘Recovery Revolution’ will have to really kick in to mitigate resource scarcity. We firmly believe this and we believe our investments are very well suited for the long term.”

Fielkow points to the “Green Fence” issue (the 2013 change in China’s import laws that has resulted in the country not accepting “lower purity” recyclables...) as one which reflects the changing landscape in the recycling industry.

“The Green Fence is very real and has had a big impact on ReCommunity, and the industry,” Fielkow continues. “It meant that we had to slow down operations, we’ve had to think differently about how we’re going to staff our facilities. We’ve placed higher quality sorters in to address the issue, for example.

“Looking at it in the long term, we think the Green Fence is great because everybody should play by the same set of rules, and that means quality. We also think it’s very likely that it will stimulate domestic jobs – whether it’s in Canada or the U.S. – there are opportunities to capitalize on.

“It’s all about creating quality and purity and I don’t think it matters whether you’re dealing with dual stream or single stream,” insists Fielkow. “It’s about how well your system is designed and how well it is operated to make the grades.”

With respect to quality and purity of output Fielkow adds that effective education of the public, another aspect of ReCommunity’s expertise, is extremely important.

“I don’t think it’s a function of dual stream vs. single stream as much as it is getting back to the education of what can actually go into the bins. Christmas lights aren’t exactly the kinds of items that should be going into bins. These kinds of messages will go a long way to helping with Green Fence [quality of  recyclable material output] issues.

“It’s an eye-opening experience when China, one of the biggest purchasers of North American recyclables, effectively over night, makes a very big change in their laws,” concludes Fielkow. “It raises an awareness that our industry needs to have diversity, and we need to make sure there are always multiple options.”