SEATTLE (Recycling Monster): The City of Columbia, MO Material Recovery Facility (MRF) will undergo some major changes, announced Matt Nestor, public information specialist at Columbia Utilities.
The MRF has been in operation for nearly two decades now. It had exceeded recycling capacity in October 2022. The City was forced to put an end to curbside recycling collection in May last year, owing to severe staff shortage. The operations at the MRF resumed in March this year, but it has been confronting space shortage over the past few months, on account of high recycling volumes driven by increased participation rates.
The City plans to build another facility, which in turn will lead to significant expansion in the City’s recycling program.
The current MRF follows a dual-stream system, by which it accepts only fibers and containers. It accepts recycling that are picked up from drop-off locations as well as those dropped off by residents at the MRF, which are then manually sorted. The sorted useful materials are bundled up and sold for reuse.
The renovation of the MRF may result in changes to recycling collection. The City Council will look into recommendations put forward by RRT Engineering on actions to improve the city’s waste management system.