Pratt Industries, Conyers, Ga., USA, celebrated the opening of its newest recycling material recovery facility, or MRF, this past week at its campus in Conyers. The plant, which will receive materials from both municipal and commercial recycling programs, is the most advanced MRF in Georgia, according to a press release from the company. It can process both residential and commercial single-stream recyclables, source-separated, and baled materials. These include various grades of paper, plastic, and metal, as well as other materials.

In 2013, the city of Conyers chose Pratt Recycling to be its residential and commercial waste services provider, as well as the recycler to service all households in the city, for single-stream recycling. At that time, Pratt built a municipal solid waste transfer station on the campus, the company’s first.

The newly opened MRF is the final phase of this project, and is designed to aide in reducing landfill costs in both Conyers and other Atlanta area municipalities and businesses, and to increase the recovery of recyclables.

Company Chairman Anthony Pratt said the MRF would process 10,500 tons of materials a month at capacity, including some 5,000 tons of paper which will be used as fiber for the 100% recycled paper mill on site. That is the same amount of paper produced from more than 1 million trees a year.

 

"And even the materials we can’t recycle can be used as fuel in our clean energy plant which is right next door," said Pratt, in the press release. "We’ve been extremely successful in using landfill-bound material — instead of non-renewable energy — to power our paper mill and other parts of the eco-campus thanks to the high-tech stock prep systems we’ve put in place.

"Now, by building both a solid waste transfer station and a material recovery facility on-site we’ve also greatly improved the supply chain of material going into the clean energy plant because the non-recyclable material has to be transported just 300 ft. instead of 300 miles."

Locating the recycling center on the campus now provides Pratt and its customers with a closed-loop recycling site, including the MRF, the paper mill, a box manufacturing plant, and the waste-to-energy gasification plant. The new MRF and transfer station, located at 1920 Sarasota Business Pkwy., occupy 90,000-sq. ft. and feature some of the most advanced, hi-tech sorting equipment in the industry, according to the release.

All grades of paper collected and separated will be consumed as feedstock at the mill and will also save on transportation costs, ensuring a minimized carbon footprint for both Pratt and its customers, according to the release. All metals, plastics, and other materials will be sold to end-users of those commodities.

"Pratt and the city have grown together since the company chose Conyers as its corporate headquarters more than 20 years ago," said Conyers Mayor Randy Mills, in the release.

"It is indeed an honor to welcome Pratt’s continued investment and community involvement in our city where they are the single largest employer. Of Pratt’s 5,200 green-collar employees nationally, over 800 are based out of Conyers. On behalf of our entire community, I am glad that we can host one of America’s most environmentally sustainable companies in our city."

​Pratt is the fifth largest corrugated box producer in the U.S. and uses only 100% recycled paper. It has more than 130 facilities throughout the U.S. and Mexico.