American Recycler, December 2008 - New MiniMRF recycling technology created

Novelis Corporation launched miniMRF LLC, a joint venture with PRFection Engineering. MiniMRF builds and operates innovative technology designed to achieve high rates of solid waste diversion. This technology is positioned downstream to recover materials that have already eluded traditional recycling programs and are otherwise destined for landfills.

MiniMRF technology provides landfills and transfer stations with the means to divert up to 15 percent of the municipal solid waste stream, and redirect it back into valuable reuse applications. Currently, the technology targets aluminum cans, steel and a variety of other reusable materials. In its future state, through recovery of PET bottles and additional materials, the technology could achieve diversion rates as high as 40 percent.

“MiniMRF has been operating successfully in central Ohio since August 2008,” said John Woehlke, business development manager with Novelis in North America. “We expect strong interest in the technology as people seek new ways to increase recycling and extend landfill life.”

As part of their sustainability efforts, both companies are committed to increasing the aluminum can recycling rate. In the United States, approximately half of aluminum beverage cans, more than 50 billion cans, are discarded and sent to landfills annually. MiniMRF is positioned as one viable solution to this vast opportunity and, within the next decade, could recycle up to 4 billion used beverage cans annually. All of the aluminum recovered by miniMRF will be used in the United States, by Novelis, to make aluminum sheet for the sustainable, closed-loop production of beverage cans.