New bottle-to-bottle recycling plant set to open in Colorado

SEATTLE (Scrap Monster): Park City, Utah-headquartered Momentum Recycling has announced opening of its new state-of-the-art bottle-to-bottle recycling plant in Colorado. The official opening of the plant located near Northwest Parkway in unincorporated Boulder, Colorado will be held on February 22, 2017. The proposed facility will be the company’s first facility outside of Utah and is aimed to boost glass recycling rate in the state to over three times its current level.

John Lair, president and CEO of Momentum Recycling noted that the Colorado facility will be the first of its kind in the state. The company is excited to open such an innovative facility in Colorado itself, considering the focus put by it on strong recycling practices. The facility will help the state to achieve its zero waste goal and will produce high-quality recycled glass, which in turn could be used by local bottle manufacturers.

Momentum Recycling noted that the new recycling plant will not require any change to the way in which Coloradans currently recycle their glass. The residents must continue to place glass in their curbside recycling bins. The glass collected from the stream of mixed recyclables will be directed to Momentum’s recycling facility.

According to the company, its primary goal is to leverage the industry-leading technology to make glass recycling simple and effective for Colorado. The success of the plant will lead to development of new markets and applications for recycled glass, it noted. The initiative reaffirms Momentum Recycling’s commitment to become an active, positive member of the Colorado business community and collaborate with local organizations to advance recycling, sustainability and environmental goals.

Donna Lynne, Colorado’s Lieutenant Governor stated that Colorado is extremely fortunate to have been selected by Momentum Recycling for establishing its new recycling facility. The opening of the plant will support the administration’s efforts to take Colorado to zero waste goal. Furthermore, the facility will boost the efforts to keep Colorado green. She also confirmed her participation at the grand opening ceremony.

As per rough estimates, nearly 320,000 tons of glass bottles and jars were thrown away in Colorado during 2015, out of which only around 20,000 tons were recycled. This essentially translated to a very low recycling rate of 6.25% during the year. With the commissioning of the new facility, additional 49,000 tons of glass bottles and jars could be recycled every year, thereby increasing the recycling rate to almost 21.65%. The company targets to raise the recycling rates to more than 50% by means of increased consumer awareness and collection. It has partnered with other companies and various governmental organizations in promoting better glass recycling practices across Colorado.

Founded in 2008, with the goal of helping communities move towards zero waste, Momentum Recycling currently operates a glass recycling plant in Salt Lake City, Utah, which collects glass from all over Utah. After carefully inspecting for contamination and hazardous materials, the collected glass is passed through sorting stations. The sorted glass is then broken into crude particles for optical sorting. They are then passed through series of processes involving Trommels, Fluidized Bed Drier, Primary and Secondary Rotary Screens and Pulverizer to generate glass cullets of various sizes.