WM to invest $38M in Wisconsin recycling facility

WM, Houston, plans to invest $38 million in recycling technology at the company’s recycling facility in Germantown, Wisconsin, one of the largest recycling processing facilities in the state. The company says this will be a rebuild of the facility, which spans 230,000 square feet.  

“Sustainability is WM’s core business and recycling is at its heart,” WM Upper Midwest Area Vice President Frank Fello said in a news release. “This investment demonstrates that our commitment to growing recycling in the state of Wisconsin is stronger than ever." 

The Germantown facility processes recyclables from communities and businesses throughout Wisconsin and occasionally from surrounding areas. WM says it plans to rebuild the plant and incorporate new technologies for sorting residential and commercial recyclables, including optical sorters, ballistic separators, volumetric scanners, air separators and other advanced technology. The company's in-house team will provide project management and source proven technology from various manufacturers, though none has been mentioned.  

“This is expected to increase our processing capacity and improve the quality of the outbound product we ship to manufacturers,” WM says in a statement provided to Recycling Today Media Group. “These changes will position us to meet the growing demand for recycled feedstock.” 

The rebuilt plant is expected to enable the recovery of more recyclables at a higher quality so manufacturers can turn recycled materials into new products and packaging, which supports WM's commitment to the circular economy by encouraging the reuse of materials. WM says it expects to process about 240,000 inbound tons of material annually, up from the facility's current capacity of 200,000 tons.   

The rebuild is expected to start in May, with completion slated for late December. WM says it has arranged to have recyclables processed at other recycling plants in the region while the facility is offline.   

The Germantown recycling project is among WM’s planned $1 billion in investments in recycling infrastructure expected between 2022 and 2025. According to a presentation in January, the company plans to invest $455 million in capital expenditures on municipal recycling program expansions like material recovery facilities (MRFs). Recently, the company announced a $42 million investment in a new MRF in Plainfield Township, Pennsylvania, it expects to be operational by the first quarter of 2025.

WM says it aims to increase the recovery of materials companywide by 60 percent to 25 million tons by 2030.