WM Recycle America (WMRA), a provider of waste management services, has made an investment in recycling processing equipment known as single-stream at its Houston facility that is due to be operational by late 2010.

Single-stream technology collects all the recyclables in a single bin to enhance convenience for the users and therefore holds potential to increase the typical amount of recycling by up to 30%.

This single-stream sorting system in the Houston facility uses advanced technology to handle large volumes while still separating the commingled recyclables into clean end products.

The system uses several screens to separate the mixed recyclables into newspaper, mixed paper, plastic containers and glass and does the final clean up and sorting of mixed paper, containers, PET, tetrapack and mixed plastics automatically with several optical near infrared sorters.

The system will also feature a paper magnet to remove small fiber and recyclable residue from the container stream and a paper spike to mechanically separate boxboard/chipboard from newspaper, with additional magnets and eddy currents and two balers for the finished products.

WM South Texas director of recycling Alan Stein said that the company is excited to invest in this type of recycling technology as less work on the part of the customer to get these materials to the curb really helps increase participation.

“Our commercial customers have already seen the benefits of our integrated recycling and we believe our residential customers will, too,” Stein said.