Communities in Utah, Michigan, Florida and elsewhere are ramping up plans to build new recycling facilities, but they need help from partnerships and finding sources to make it happen. Meanwhile, other recyclers are expanding their footprints and their locations to collect more materials. 

What recycling facility upgrades or updates are you following? Send us a note at waste.dive.editors@industrydive.com.  

Recycle Utah unveils plans to new recycling 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 due to 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 coming months.

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

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

RFPs in Florida, Michigan, seek partnerships to build new MRFs

Communities in Orange County, Florida and Northeast Michigan have sent out requests for proposals to build new MRFs.

The RFP for Orange County, Florida, seeks a company that can offer recycling, processing and marketing services. That 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 of recyclables, which includes a 15-year initial term and two five-year extensions. RFPs for that 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, Michigan. Previously, NMMMA walked away from its bid agreement with Devere Industrial, due to added costs that 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. It will be partially funded by a $1.2 million grant from Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy. It also received a $2.7 million U.S. Department of Agriculture grant.  

Dynamic Lifecycle Innovations expands into Texas

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, whichhelps position it closer to customers in a region with a fast-developing tech 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 its 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. 

Here’s where other facility updates are happening:

• 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 the Lovettsville Community Park. The project is meant to help the county achieve its goal of recycling more glass by offering specific receptacles. 
• Clackamas, Oregon: A new RecycleOn center has opened in Clackamas County, designed to offer convenient locations to recycle materials that aren’t accepted in curbside recycling bins. The centers are part of the state’s extended producer responsibility for packaging law overseen by the Circular Action Alliance. CAA is planning to deploy a total of 144 RecycleOn centers in the state by the end of 2027.