New recycling facility to start taking shape

By Peter H. Milliken

Mahoning County’s second materials recovery facility is funded in part by the state.

POLAND — Ground was broken Monday for a recycling facility near the Carbon-Limestone Landfill, which will become Mahoning County’s second such recycling unit.

The materials recovery facility will be built at Old Miller and Cowden roads by Greenstar North America, a Houston-based recycling firm, which has operations in Pittsburgh and Allentown, Pa.

An MRF is a place that sorts, bundles and ships recycled materials including bottles, cans, cardboard, newspaper and other paper.

“What this means is economic development and jobs,” said Jim Petuch, director of the county’s recycling division, also known as the Green Team.

The new facility is projected to have about six employees when it opens in June, and that number could double in three years after it opens, said Mike Heher, manager of the Carbon Limestone landfill division of Republic Services.

The initial 20,000-square-foot facility will be able to process at least 10,000 tons of recyclables annually and is projected to expand in stages to 60,000 square feet as more counties join the collection area feeding into it, Petuch said.

Republic collects recyclables at curbside twice monthly from 80,000 to 90,000 Mahoning County homes free of charge, and it subsidizes that free collection with surcharges for out-of-state waste going to its landfill, Heher said.

“We’ll no longer have to haul them to Pittsburgh” after the new facility opens, Heher said of the recyclable materials. Republic has a long-term contract with Greenstar to take the recyclables Republic collects in the Youngstown and Pittsburgh areas, he said.

Not having to haul recyclables to Pittsburgh will result in fuel and cost savings and reduced air pollution from truck exhaust, said Mari Wren-Petrony, assistant Green Team director.

Any nonrecyclable materials deposited in the collection bins in error and delivered to the MRF can be dumped in the adjacent landfill, she said.

The Green Team is administering a $250,000 market-development grant from the Ohio Department of Natural Resources toward the new facility’s $1 million worth of equipment.

The grant requires the recipient company to make an investment in the equipment that at least matches the state money dollar for dollar. The company must pay the full cost of building the building.

Jeff Draper, Greenstar’s vice president for business development, could not be reached to provide the building cost or comment on the project.

An identical $250,000 state grant went toward the county’s first MRF, which opened at the beginning of 2008 in North Lima and is operated by Associated Paper Stock Inc.

Petuch said he hopes end-users of recycled materials from both facilities, such as a paper mill, or possibly a glass factory, could be attracted to Mahoning County.

Attending Monday’s Poland ceremony were county Commissioners Anthony T. Traficanti and Davd N. Ludt; State Sen. Joseph Schiavoni, D-33rd, of Canfield; State Rep. Ron Gerberry, D-59th, of Austintown; Springfield Township trustee Bob Orr; Lowellville Mayor James Iudiciani; and Poland Township trustees Annette DiVito, Robert Lidle and Mark Naples; Chet Chaney, ODNR recycling grants coordinator; and Green Team and Greenstar officials.