Waste Pro opens MRF in Sarasota, Florida

Waste Pro, Longwood, Florida, has opened a new 14,000-square-foot material recovery facility (MRF) at its Regional Operations Center in Sarasota, Florida. The grand opening event was Feb. 8, 2017. The facility is the only single-stream MRF operating in Manatee County.

“Waste Pro’s expansion is a wonderful addition to the southern end of Manatee County,” said Manatee County Commissioner Robin DiSabatino.

The facility originally opened in 2008 after a major renovation.

“We are proud to have partnered with Manatee County on this recycling initiative,” says Waste Pro Division Manager Sean Jennings. “We are committed to the community and are excited about the long term effects this will have on improving the quality of life for the residents in Manatee County.”

The project is a direct result of the need to process the large volume of recyclables collected curbside by Waste Pro’s vehicles. “The convenience and larger capacity of the new recycling carts has increased the overall amount of recyclables,” says Waste Pro Regional Vice President Keith Banasiak.

The SRQ Material Recovery Facility was designed by Tom Walter of the Walter Group of Sarasota and constructed by Metropole Construction of Fort Myers in preparation for Manatee County’s conversion to single-stream recycling, which went into effect October 2016. It will be processing up to 2,000 tons of mixed glass, metals, plastics, paper and cardboard per month from residential and commercial sources throughout unincorporated Manatee County, according to the company.

Sean Jennings, division manager for Waste Pro, says the MRF will begin by running one shift, though he says as the facility starts to ramp up another shift may be added.

He notes that prior to building the MRF, any firm that was collecting single-stream material in the area had to transport the material much farther way to have it properly processed.

The facility is equipped with single-stream technology CP Manufacturing, San Diego, including disc screens that detect and mechanically separate recyclables based on material, size and density.

The company had been distributing collection containers to its customers in the area since the middle of last year in anticipation of the start of the facility. "We are excited to work with the county. The transition so far as gone smoothly," Jennings says.

The implementation of a single-stream system enables customers to dispose of their recyclables responsibly in a larger container without sorting through materials manually. In addition, the technologies integrated into Waste Pro’s new sorting line, as well as a team of 20 employees, will ensure that the majority of the materials collected can be salvaged.