Waste Management opens Philadelphia recovery facility

Waste Management celebrated the launch of its Philadelphia Material Recovery Facility (MRF), located in Northeast Philadelphia.

Waste Management invested over $20 million to create one of the most advanced single-stream technology plants in operation at a former brownfield site. The Philadelphia MRF is the largest such facility in the region and can sort and process more than 20,000 tons of recyclable newspaper, cardboard, aluminum, glass and plastic each month. The plant also captures materials that were historically discarded, such as film plastic and rigid plastics, expanding the range of materials that can be recycled.

The Philadelphia MRF accepts materials from the City of Philadelphia’s single-stream residential collection program as well as from other communities and commercial customers in the region. Once fully staffed, the facility will employ over 70 people, most of them hired from the Philadelphia area.

The Philadelphia MRF was constructed using sustainable building and design techniques and has received LEED Silver certification from the U.S. Green Building Council. The siding and roofing of the processing building contain over 80 percent recycled content; advanced stormwater management systems, including a green roof on the office facility, treat stormwater to improve its quality prior to release.

This project is part of Waste Management’s sustainability initiative to nearly triple the amount of recyclable materials it recovers, from approximately 8 million tons today to over 20 million tons by 2020.