Largo, MD - Today, after a six-month overhaul, the Prince George's County Department of the Environment (DoE) held a ribbon-cutting ceremony at the Materials Recycling Facility (MRF) to officially unveil the completion of equipment upgrades at the Facility. The event included County officials, representatives from Maryland Environmental Service (MES), operators of the Facility, and other key County officials.
"The reason the County promotes recycling is that it reduces pollution, reduces greenhouse gases, and reduces the amount of waste that ends up in our landfills," said Floyd Holt, Prince George's County Deputy Chief Administrative Officer for Government Infrastructure, Technology and Environmental Services.
"The upgraded system will allow recyclable materials to be processed more efficiently," said DoE Director Andrea L. Crooms. "These updates will save the County time and money, as well as reinforce our mission to recycle as many uncontaminated materials in our waste stream as possible."
The new MRF equipment includes a substantial upgrade to its sorting system. This consists of the installation of three new TITECH (TOMRA) Optical Sorting Units, an additional Elliptical Separator, a new plastics sorting line with (four) new 75-cubic yard storage buns for PET, HDPE-Natural and Color and Poly Propylene (PP), a new permanent magnet, an Eddy Current and a Control Panel (MCC).
These new recycling upgrades will allow the sorting equipment to separate the plastics into more valuable products. The last updates to the sorting equipment at the MRF were made in 2007 when the County transitioned to a single stream system to collect recyclable materials.
As a leader in waste diversion, the County's goal is to recycle as many components from the waste stream as feasible, minimize dependency on the landfill, and make recycling easy and convenient with less contamination. Residents are encouraged to maintain good recycling habits, including placing the right items in the collection bins and keeping recyclables clean and unbagged. Plastics bags are not accepted in recycling collection carts.
Residents are reminded to only recycle plastics with resin identification numbers 1, 2, 3, 5, and 7 as listed on the bottom or back of the material. Click here to see a list of acceptable items collected in the County's recycling program or visit bit.ly/wastetoolkit.
The MRF opened its doors in October 1993 as a 65,000-square foot facility. The Facility processes more than 70,000 tons of recyclable materials last year.
For more information about the MRF, call 301-324-4762. For additional information about MES, visit menv.com/service/recycling/.
For more information, contact:
Judith Hall, Public Information Specialist
Department of the Environment
jhall@co.pg.md.us
Linda Lowe, Public Information Officer
Department of the Environment
(301) 836-2115
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