A $40 Million Update to Philadelphia’s Recycling Facility
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the location of SPE’s ANTEC® 2025 conference, recently completed a massive automation update for the city’s recycling facility.
Philadelphia has been a hub for sustainability, recycling, and plastics innovation. The city hosted ANTEC 2025, the (SPE) Society of Plastics Engineers’ annual technical event, bringing together 500 industry professionals. At the same time, Philadelphia is making strides toward sustainability by expanding its recycling facilities and enhancing its waste management efforts.
You can also read: Sustainability Takes the Spotlight at ANTEC®2025.
In November 2024, Waste Management (WM), Philadelphia’s recycling processor, announced the completion of automation upgrades for the city’s recycling facility. With these upgrades, the facility will process up to 192,000 tons of material annually, increasing from 120,000 tons. These new advancements will allow the facility to collect more types of plastic and to sort recyclables with artificial intelligence. A new optical sort line will also serve as a final quality control measure.
Mayor Cherelle Parker said during the ribbon-cutting ceremony, “I’m so happy that we have great partners to work with.” WM Greater Mid-Atlantic Area VP Chris Farley added, “This plant allows us to take more material and produce better commodities.”
Due to increased demand for recycled product content, WM has invested over $1.4 billion in facility upgrades. This investment is expected to add 2.8 million tons of incremental annual processing capacity in North America.
Municipal waste vehicle in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. These trucks will bring recycling to the new facility, which WM will process. Photo by Julienne Smith.
WM: Recycling Across North America
As North America’s largest recycler, WM recycles 510,254 tons of plastic annually. Through their Recycle Right® consumer education initiative, the company aims to reduce recycling contamination by 10% by 2025. Additionally, WM focuses on selling recycled materials domestically. In 2019, WM sold 77% of recycled paper and plastic materials to domestic markets. This can help establish domestic industries for recycled plastic materials. Additionally, WM aims to reduce plastic pollution that can occur due to the export of plastic waste. Countries that are not well-equipped for processing substantial amounts of plastic may inadvertently mismanage this waste. Many of these countries have now restricted the importation of scrap plastics. Thus, WM is working to keep end of life material management within North America.
Keeping Philly Clean
The city of Philadelphia has numerous community outreach efforts to encourage recycling. The BigBelly Program provides trash and recycling bins to high-traffic commercial corridors, installed by the Department of Sanitation. Many of these units are decorated with original artwork in partnership with Mural Arts Philadelphia.
A BigBelly combined litter and recycling receptacle in Philadelphia. Photo by Julienne Smith.
The city of Philadelphia’s website provides a variety of informational resources to residents. This includes guidelines for recycling waste as well as special items, such as leaves and holiday trees. The website also features a wealth of printable posters, resources, and guides for business and education use.
Philadelphia has shown support towards educating citizens about recycling. Now, with an upgraded recycling facility serving the city and suburbs, the city can continue to support this initiative.