Advanced sorting technology coming to new Edmonton recycling facility

A new recycling facility in Edmonton will use technology to help sort incoming items. Half of Alberta's residential recycling will come through the facility.

Edmonton will get a new recycling facility meant to improve the city’s capacity and infrastructure for reusable materials by next year.

Waste management group WM and Circular Materials plan to open a preconditioning recycling facility (PCF) that uses newer technology to sort through plastics, packaging and other materials in the city by 2027.

The technology would identify packages and paper products better using near-infrared and optical sortation systems and make sure more materials are brought back to producers to make into new packaging or items.

Non-profit organization Circular Materials says the goal is to increase the amount of recycled products that are reused to minimize waste on the road to creating a circular economy that keeps products in use for as long as possible.

Alberta’s extended producer responsibility (EPR) program, which began in April of last year, puts the cost of recycling 100-per-cent on companies that make packaging and other single-use plastics in Alberta. Municipalities and taxpayers no longer shoulder the financial burden of recycling those products.

Starting Oct. 1, the program will expand to include a new material list for Albertans that would include glass containers, foam packaging, flexible plastic packaging, aerosol containers, laminated paper and plastic packaging.

Edmonton’s new facility will manage a “significant portion” of Alberta’s residential recyclable material once it’s completed, WM said in a media release.

The plant will be built on a WM-owned building ready for modernization and expansion and construction was already “well underway.”

An Alberta-based design-build firm with local contractors and subcontractors is being used, the company says, and construction will employ 80 people through 2026 and into early 2027.

Once running, the new facility is expected to have 45 full-time roles in management, supervising, equipment operating and technicians.