Plant manager Floyd Dean oversees a recycling drop-off.Orange Grove’s recycling center is a constant hum of trucks, fork lifts, bailers and conveyor belts. Five days a week, workers line the fast-moving conveyor belts to sort water bottles, bean cans and cat food coupons into their proper piles: plastic, metal, paper.
Last year, the center processed more than 4,000 tons of recyclables. And Orange Grove officials expect demand will only continue to grow. The city of Chattanooga plans to push curbside recycling participation up from 14,000 households to 26,000 households, said Heidi Hoffecker, Orange Grove’s director of development.
And the city has started to allow glass in its curbside recycling program, which brings in more materials and makes sorting recyclables more difficult. By the time they arrive at the facility, old Snapple bottles and pickle jars are often broken into hundreds of shards, making it difficult for workers to sort them. Sometimes glass ends up in the soles of people’s shoes, getting tracked home with them.
With dated equipment and rising demand, Orange Grove says it’s time for big upgrades in its recycling center. The facility is looking to spend about $1.5 million for new machines that will help automate the process. Along with a larger, wider belt, the center hopes to add mechanisms that will help sort glass automatically from the line. Another will suck out plastic grocery bags from the mix. And new magnets will help sort metals.
If fully funded, these will be the biggest upgrades since the recycling program began more than 25 ago.