Communities in Utah, Michigan, Florida and elsewhere are advancing plans for new recycling facilities, relying on partnerships and funding sources to move projects forward. Meanwhile, other recyclers are expanding their footprints and locations to collect more materials.

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Recycle Utah Plans Much Larger Park City-Area Facility

Recycle Utah, the nonprofit organization that handles recycling processing services in the Park City area, has announced early design plans for its new drop-off center.

The announcement is an important milestone for the organization, which has been looking for a new home for its facility for more than a year, according to Town Lift. Its current location will need to close because of redevelopment plans in the neighborhood, the Park Record reported.

The fate of the organization was up in the air until May, when Park City Council approved a plan to offer four acres of city-owned land to the facility. Recycle Utah now has until March 1, 2027, to vacate its current facility. It will begin a fundraising effort for the future facility in the coming months.

“We are now in active planning for a future facility roughly ten times the size of our current location,” the organization said on its website.

Recycle Utah has provided recycling services in the area since 1991. The drop-off center accepts commonly recycled items as well as a range of harder-to-recycle materials, including electronics, batteries and lightbulbs. Recycle Utah said it is the only facility in Utah that accepts expanded polystyrene foam.

Florida and Michigan Seek Partners for New MRFs

Communities in Orange County, Florida, and Northeast Michigan have issued requests for proposals to build new material recovery facilities.

The Orange County RFP seeks a company that can provide recycling, processing and marketing services. The selected company would also finance, build, operate and own a recycling facility in the county.

Orange County plans to award a long-term services agreement for processing recyclables, including a 15-year initial term and two five-year extensions. Proposals for the project are due Oct. 1.

Recycling infrastructure is a priority for the county, which has more than 1.5 million residents and hosts more than 75 million visitors annually, it said in a news release. The Orange County Utilities Solid Waste Management Division collects about 60,000 tons of single-stream recyclable materials each year from about 240,000 residential customers, it said.

In Michigan, the Northeast Michigan Materials Management Authority has reissued its bid for a construction company to build a new recycling facility near Alpena. NMMMA previously walked away from its bid agreement with Devere Industrial because added costs put the project over budget, The Alpena News reported. The authority will accept bids until Oct. 9.

NMMMA plans to spend between $5.7 million and $5.9 million depending on the project's design, The Alpena News reported. The project will be partially funded by a $1.2 million grant from the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy. NMMMA also received a $2.7 million U.S. Department of Agriculture grant.

Dynamic Lifecycle Innovations Opens First Texas Facility

Dynamic Lifecycle Innovations, an IT asset disposition company, has opened a new facility in Waco, Texas. The company said this is its first facility in the state, positioning it closer to customers in a region with a fast-developing technology sector. Its other locations are in Wisconsin, Tennessee and Virginia.

“Texas continues to attract significant investment in technology and digital infrastructure, creating greater demand for secure, responsible lifecycle solutions,” said Casey Dingfelder, executive vice president of ITAD, in a statement.

The Waco facility has space for secure reverse logistics operations, asset tracking, certified data destruction and IT asset disposition work, as well as electronics recycling, data center decommissioning services and other tasks.

Other Recycling Facility Projects Advance in Florida, Virginia and Oregon

• Tampa, Florida: WM's $88 million recycling facility in the Tampa area has begun construction, executives announced. The facility, set to open in 2027, is designed to process 229,000 tons of recyclables per year.
• Loudoun County, Virginia: A new recycling center is under construction at Lovettsville Community Park. The project is intended to help the county achieve its goal of recycling more glass by providing dedicated receptacles.
• Clackamas, Oregon: A new RecycleOn center has opened in Clackamas County to provide a location for recycling materials that are not accepted in curbside recycling bins. The centers are part of the state's extended producer responsibility program for packaging overseen by the Circular Action Alliance. CAA plans to deploy a total of 144 RecycleOn centers in the state by the end of 2027.