Recycling serious business at Mount Pearl plant
Value-added processing and new jobs move province toward recycling goals
A new recycling plant in Mount Pearl that, among other things, grinds plastic bottles into flakes is head and shoulders above anything else recycling-wise in Newfoundland and Labrador to date.
The official opening of Hebert’s Recycling Inc.’s new recycling plant on Glencoe Drive was held Tuesday.
The New Brunswick-based, family owned company employs about 30 people in the province — 18 at the new plant plus its truck drivers and administration personnel. The plant operates 16 hours a day, six days per week.
Hebert’s Recycling Inc. developed the new processing plant after being awarded a contract with the province’s Multi-materials Stewardship Board (MMSB) to purchase all of its plastics. Through its innovative technology, the company has changed the way beverage containers are collected, baled and processed in Newfoundland and Labrador.
Kevin Sargent, CEO of Hebert’s Recycling Inc., hosted a media tour of the facility Tuesday.
He said the new location enables the company to process 78 million plastic containers per year and sell them to global companies that specialize in manufacturing rigid and flexible packaging for the pharmaceutical, medical device, food and beverage markets.
He said the company has invented its own system and its equipment includes conveyors, electro-magnetic technology, granulators, air-powered elutriation (separation) systems and various line sorters. This allows the plant to remove impurities and contamination to generate material at 99.1 per cent purity, which attracts better prices in postconsumer commodities markets.
“Our purchasers say the only thing that is wrong with our product is they can’t get enough of it,” Sargent said. “We are proud to be investing in Newfoundland
and Labrador and we are proud of our role in supporting sustainability goals in Newfoundland and Labrador.”
The company purchased the new building on Glencoe Drive earlier this year. Prior to that, the company had leased a building on Clyde Avenue, but with the new contract came the need to expand the space.
“This building has a better layout and is exactly what we needed to have,” Sargent said. “The opportunity was there and we knew we are good at what we do. We were operating a very cost-effective beverage container management program and there was the opportunity to bid on some work here in Newfoundland and Labrador, and we took that opportunity and turned it into this.”
Inside the spacious building, bales of tin cans were stacked to the ceiling ready for shipment out of the province. Crushed glass sorted by colour waited to be packaged, and sacks full of plastic bottles collected from green depots throughout the province waited to be processed.
Grinding the plastic bottles into flakes increases transportation efficiency and is better for end use in the market. In
addition, the plant collects old paints and electronics, which are boxed and shipped to recycling companies that turn the material into new products. Much of the materials shipped out of the plant go to cities such as Montreal and New York.
The MMSB is a Crown agency of the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador that reports to Minister of Municipal Affairs and Environment Andrew Parsons.
The MMSB was established in 1996 to support and promote sustainable waste management provincewide through the development and implementation of public education and waste diversion programs.
Gary Ryan, director of programs at the MMSB, said they collect 280 million containers annually in the province through 56 green depots.
And that is just 67 per cent of the total number of containers in circulation, so there’s room to do better, he said.
“We collect 17 sorts of material and this plant is capable of processing all 17 sorts,” Ryan said. “The MMSB beverage program is made up of five components: green depots, collection services, quality assurance, the processing side of it and the end markets.”
Parsons said he was impressed with the tour of the plant and was happy to participate in the ribbon-cutting ceremony.
“For the first time we actually have value-added (recycling) production that’s coming out of Newfoundland and Labrador, which is huge,” Parsons said. “This is a combination of innovation, adaptation technology. A family from New Brunswick found opportunity here in Newfoundland and Labrador, and they came here, brought people here and are creating jobs here.”