ECUA’s Recycling Facility Receives National Honor

October 4, 2017

The Emerald Coast Utility Authority’s recycling facility has received national recognition.

The Solid Waste Association of North America (SWANA) announced ECUA has been named the winner of the SWANA Silver Excellence Award in the Recycling System category. The award was presented at SWANA’s annual conference, WASTECON, last week in Baltimore.

The ECUA received the award for its state-of-the-art materials recycling facility, which began operations in September 2016. The 2017 awards honor programs and facilities in 13 different categories, spanning many facets of the municipal solid waste industry. Award winners represent the most innovative and dynamic organizations throughout North America as judged by their peers, according to SWANA.

“The Emerald Coast Utilities Authority (ECUA) constructed a regional materials recycling facility (MRF) to process recyclables collected from its 100,000 customers as well as residents in surrounding counties in Florida and Alabama,” said Randall Rudd, deputy executive director for ECUA.

ECUA partnered with Escambia County to develop an ECUA-owned MRF at the county’s landfill. The partnership worked under an expedited timeframe to build a 53,460 square-foot single stream MRF capable of processing 25 tons-per-hour. Strategic planning for the $10.7 million facility began in 2015 and was completed in just 18 months.

ECUA decided to employ a dynamic process where the equipment, site development, and operations schedules were compressed by overlapping the design, permitting, procurement, negotiations, and construction.  ECUA has constructed a modern high-tech MRF with several state-of-the-art enhancements to allow for advanced automation, customization for desired materials removal and processing, and automatic performance reporting to produce a cleaner and more marketable material.

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Written by William Reynolds · Filed Under News