City, county break ground on new recycling facility
Posted at: 09/06/2012 4:28 PM
| Updated at: 09/06/2012 5:56 PM
By: Eddie Garcia, KOB Eyewitness News 4
The city of Albuquerque, Bernalillo County and Arizona-based company Friedman Recycling broke ground Thursday on a new state-of-the-art recycling center which is set to open mid-2013.
"It will be the foundation of a new day in recycling," Mayor Richard Berry said.
The facility will be a mean-green 90,000 square foot recycling machine - able to handle 120,000 tons of material a year - a far cry from the city's dismal history of recycling of approximately five percent of its yearly waste.
The new center could bring that figure up to 25 or 30 percent.
"We're going to stop talking the talk on recycling and we're going to start walking the walk," Berry said.
Logistically, the city can't afford to build this $20 million facility without raising taxes. And that's where Friedman Recycling comes in; the company will be footing the construction bill and will run the facility.
The city will remain in charge of gathering and transporting recyclables to the facility.
"It's a very sophisticated program, it certainly brings Albuquerque to the cutting edge," company President Morris Friedman said.
Friedman said customers won't have to sort their recyclables either. Paper, plastic, metal, and even small electronics will all go into one bin.
The new public/private venture will also bring 75 new jobs to Albuquerque
The city said it will hammer out a profit sharing agreement with Friedman from the sale of the processed recycled materials.
Berry said he hopes to have a recycling bin in front of every Albuquerque home by the end of 2013.
 |
Tweet |
|
