Recycling Facility Celebrates Two Year Anniversary
(WAUKESHA, WI) – Waukesha County and the City of Milwaukee celebrate two years since operations began at the regional Materials Recovery Facility (MRF). The new facility’s streamlined recycling process resulted in more recycling, local tax relief and improved public and private partnerships in the region.
“Our new MRF made recycling easier by allowing residents to place bottles, cans and paper in the same recycling containers,” said Waukesha County Executive Paul Farrow. “A simpler process means residents are recycling more than ever, which saves tax payers dollars in addition to saving space in our landfills.”
Waukesha County residents have increased recycling by 40% since the MRF opened two years ago, exceeding the 3-year goal of 25%. With the increase in recycling, Waukesha County communities are now diverting 13% more materials (over 10,000 tons) from landfill disposal, saving an estimated $400,000 through reduced landfill disposal costs. Each year, all 27 municipalities that participate in Waukesha County’s recycling program receive dividend payments to offset residential recycling collection costs. The payments vary for each partner based on individual program costs, tons of recyclables and recycling rate and have totaled almost $16 million since 2001.
About the MRF
The county recycling program and MRF operations are built on intergovernmental cooperation and public-private partnerships with the City of Milwaukee, Waukesha County’s 27 municipal partners, the private operator - ReCommunity Recycling - as well as other third party companies using the MRF.
The MRF sorts and processes recyclables from approximately 300,000 households, from Waukesha County’s participating communities and the City of Milwaukee, served by single sort recycling. The MRF is designed to process 35 tons of recyclables per hour, or more than 60,000 tons of recyclables per year.
For more information or a recycling guide, visit www.waukeshacounty.gov/recycling, call 262-896-8300 or download the free Waukesha County Recycles mobile app in Google Play and Apple App Stores.
