Florida recycling and disposal facility highlights projects

A recent article in TC Palm provides insight into some of the projects in the works at the St. Lucie County Solid Waste Baling and Recycling Facility, in Fort Pierce, Florida, which provides for the environmentally safe processing, recycling and disposal of solid waste for the residents and businesses of Port St. Lucie, St. Lucie Village and the unincorporated area of St. Lucie County. They include:

• Single-stream recycling facility expansion. According to the article, the upgrade to the existing single stream recycling facility is completed and will increase processing capacity to 25 tons per hour.
• Mining of construction and demolition (C&D) debris cell. This project began in in February 2016, and according to the article, 572 tons of dirt, 183 tons of rock and 1,139 tons of trash have been mined, for a combined 1,894 tons mined. The project recovered 110,000 cubic yards of airspace.
• Phase IV-A expansion. Construction of a new lined cell will be approximately 10.5 acres in size, which is half of the approximately 21-acre Phase IV cell, the article notes. The design is 100 percent complete and will go out to bid in fall of 2017; it includes the Phase IV-A bottom liner system, leachate conveyance, and stormwater management facilities. This project is being done in conjunction with the Phase III B Partial Closure project, according to the TC Palm article.

The St. Lucie County Solid Waste Baling and Recycling Facility encompasses 331 acres, employs about 70 workers and has a useful life for the next 50 years, according to the facility.