The big trucks that carry your trash and recyclables usually spend half of their time on the road empty. That’s not very efficient, and a waste of gas to boot.
But Republic Services, which operates the Modern Landfill outside of York, the King of Prussia Recyclery northwest of Philadelphia, and a host of other facilities that process garbage and recyclables saw a solution. When trucks were bringing trash from the eastern part of Pennsylvania to the Modern Landfill, why not load them up with recyclable materials rather than send them away empty?
So the company spent about $1 million on a so-called “transcyclery” at the Modern Landfill. The idea behind the facility, which opened last week, is pretty simple: Trucks that pick up recyclable materials from around south-central Pennsylvania will leave them at the transcyclery. When truck drivers from the east are done delivering their loads of garbage to the landfill, they can stop at the transcyclery and pick up a load of recyclables and take them to King of Prussia, where they’ll be processed for sale.
“It’s a brand-new concept of things leaving the landfill,” says Tim O’Donnell, general manager of the landfill.
The transcyclery is set to handle about 75 tons of paper, glass, metal and plastic each day. Before it opened, O’Donnell says Republic Services was taking this material to a competitor that sometimes didn’t want the recyclables. Not only does the company get to keep the money-making recyclable materials now, he says, but it hired a heavy-equipment operator to work in the transcyclery.
Source: Tim O’Donnell, Modern Landfill
Writer: Rebecca VanderMeulen
