WestRock partners with New York county to boost recycling

The state of New York’s Onondaga County Resource Recovery Agency (OCRRA) and the paper company WestRock Co., Norcross, Georgia, have announced a joint effort to convert the mill byproduct produced at WestRock’s Solvay, New York, recycled paperboard mill into electricity and to capture thousands of tons of metal for recycling.

“We are excited to build on our long legacy of recycling by working with the Onondaga County Resource Recovery Agency to turn the Solvay Mill’s manufacturing residuals into electricity,” says Nina Butler, WestRock chief sustainability officer. “This project is perfectly aligned with WestRock’s sustainability goals to reduce the landfill disposals and increase recycling in the communities where we work.”

Westrock’s Solvay paperboard mill recycles more than 850,000 tons of recovered fiber, primarily old corrugated containers, per year.

“OCRRA is proud to collaborate with WestRock’s Solvay Mill to divert valuable resources from the landfill, to generate electricity and to recover 3,000 tons of metal that would otherwise be buried forever,” says John Copanas, OCRRA board chair. “Onondaga County residents are world class recyclers; we are thrilled to support a local business in achieving its sustainability goals that align so well with OCRRA’s mission.”

The residual material collected through the joint project will be shredded at OCRRA’s Ley Creek transfer station, Liverpool, New York. The scrap metal collected, projected to be more than 3,000 tons per year, will be recycled. In addition, the remaining byproducts will be transformed into electricity at OCRRA’s waste-to-energy facility in Jamesville, New York. The WTE facility is expected to generate 25 million kilowatt hours of energy per year, enough to power 3,800 homes.

“The OCRRA–WestRock project helps our community be more sustainable while recovering thousands of tons of resources,” says Dereth Glance, OCRRA executive director.

The recycling partnership is expected to divert 44,000 tons per year from an out-of-county landfill.

In a news release, the OCCRRA notes that the cardboard recycling byproducts fall within the parameters of the agency’s existing operating permit from the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation.