Investing in the future

LRS recently opened its newest material recovery facility (MRF), dubbed the Exchange, marking the most recently completed project in what the Rosemont, Illinois-based waste and recycling services provider hopes is a step forward in its pursuit to “reshape the future of waste and recycling” to lessen environmental impact across the Midwest.

The MRF started up in May 2023, with LRS hosting a ribbon-cutting ceremony Aug. 9 to officially mark its opening. The facility sits on the company’s 25-acre campus in the Stockyards neighborhood of Chicago on the city’s south side.

The Exchange represents a $50 million investment, and LRS received financial support from several groups, including Australia-based Macquarie Group through Macquarie Asset Management; New York-based Closed Loop Partners’ Closed Loop Infrastructure Fund, Circular Plastics Fund and Beverage Fund; as well as from American Beverage through its Every Bottle Back initiative.

LRS also used a grant from The Recycling Partnership (TRP), Washington, through its Polypropylene Recycling Coalition to fund an optical sorter dedicated to sorting polypropylene (PP).

“We built this facility in Chicago and for Chicago,” LRS Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing Emily Olson-Torch said. “It’s our pleasure to bring this level of recycling and innovation to all the people who make this city remarkable.”

Inside the MRF

LRS worked with San Diego-based MRF equipment and solutions provider CP Group on the design and installation of the processing system for the Exchange. The site is equipped to process single-stream recyclables as well as nonhazardous and nonspecial municipal solid waste. The company says the MRF can process 25 tons per hour and has plans to expand up to 35 tons per hour.

According to LRS, the Exchange is projected to divert 224 million pounds of recyclables annually.

“When we started this project, we set out to create the most innovative MRF in the country, and I think we’ve done a pretty good job doing that,” LRS Executive Vice President John Sliwicki said. “The Exchange stands not only as a testament to our commitment to innovation but as a beacon of the postcollection transformation and the limitless potential of technology in redefining waste management.”

A CP Auger Screen was installed at the front of the system in place of a traditional presort that typically includes hand sorting. LRS has adjusted its screen to allow material 8 inches or smaller to be filtered to a second line for further sorting.

It also includes a CP Drum Feeder, which features a rotating drum designed to prevent surges and provide a consistent material feed rate. It is configured with bolt-on cast chromium alloy paddles to break and fluff up material and that help break open bagged material.

The Exchange also includes six optical sorters from Nashville, Tennessee-based optical sorting equipment manufacturer and CP Group business unit MSS—three to sort fiber and three to sort plastic. Each of its MSS PlasticMax optical sorters are dedicated to specific materials: one sorts polyethylene terephthalate (PET), one sorts high-density polyethylene and the third sorts PP.

Compared with LRS’ Heartland Recycling Center in Forest View, Illinois, which features only two optical sorters, the Exchange processes 10 tons more per hour with fewer employees using more automation.

The Exchange also includes two identical Harris 1388-200 two-ram balers—a first for the company as it prioritizes baler redundancy.

“This [install] was unique in that we were able to slide the balers in and build the remainder of the system around [them],” Director of MRF Operations Mark Molitor tells Recycling Today. “When we were designing the system, we knew at that time which balers we would have in place, and that allowed us to ensure we had full access around the baler so none of the processing equipment got in the way.”

Harris’ 1388-200 two-ram baler features a 13-inch main cylinder and a 9-inch ejector cylinder in a 200-horsepower power unit. The precompression lid provides additional compression to the material from the top and puts less stress on the rest of the equipment, according to the company. It can yield 25 tons per hour of old corrugated containers, 36 tons per hour of sorted residential papers and news, 16 tons per hour of used beverage cans and 14 tons per hour of PET.

“If one goes down for maintenance, there’s no slowdown in the operation at all,” Harris President D.J. VanDeusen says of LRS’ dual-baler approach.

Environmental impact

Molitor estimates 20 percent to 25 percent residuals are coming out of the Exchange. During the grand opening, the company emphasized its ongoing commitment to environmental stewardship.

“At LRS it’s our mission, and it’s a clear mission, that we are committed to reducing the environmental impact of the industries and communities in which we serve, and this infrastructure that we’ve built here today will help us do that as we move forward,” LRS Chief Operating Officer John Larsen said.

“The facility embodies this commitment by revolutionizing waste management and recycling practices right here in the city of Chicago. … For us to be able to offer this facility to not just our internal volumes but with our third-party customers is essential as we move forward,” he added.

LRS manages recycling collection services for four of Chicago’s six zones. In an effort to increase transparency into the recycling process and educate residents on its benefits, the company also launched its Blue Cart Recycling Map, which showcases the journey of recyclables, including where they are sorted and where they end up, as well as providing tonnage data from its MRFs.

“You’ll see what the recyclables go through to be sorted, the tonnage of recyclables collected and the destinations for processing it into new materials,” Chicago Department of Streets and Sanitation Commissioner Cole Stallard said.

“This story map is an effort to increase transparency in our recycling practices and we are excited to share [it],” he added. “It’s important for us to all work together in our fight against climate change. We will continue our collaboration with public-private partnership to make Chicago a cleaner and greener city.”

The author is managing editor of Waste Today’s sister publication Recycling Today and can be reached at mmcnees@gie.net.