How Recycling Works at a MRF with WM

Ever wonder what happens to your recyclables once they leave the curb? In this episode, we tour WM's Cleveland Material Recycling Facility MRF) and speak with Frank Fello, Area Vice President, who shares what happens at the MRF and why it is important to Recycle Right. 

WM (Formerly, Waste Management) is one of North America’s leading providers of solid waste management services. The facility we toured is located in Oakwood Village, Ohio, and recently underwent a $30 million upgrade. It is one of the four material recycling facilities operating in Ohio that receive recyclables collected from northeast Ohio’s curbside and drop-off recycling programs. At these MRFs, mixed bottles, cans, paper, and cardboard are sorted, baled, and sent to manufacturers to be made into new products. 

Stay tuned to learn what can and cannot be recycled curbside and why, plus where your recyclables are sent after they are sorted and processed (hint: it's not China). Also hear how landfill gas powers WM's collection vehicles and other sustainability initiatives.

Learn More:

Watch the MRF in action

Recycle Right in Cuyahoga County, Geauga County, Lorain County, Summit County and Medina County

Transcript

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Diane Bickett, Host 0:04

You're listening to EcoSpeak CLE, a podcast for the Eco Curious in Northeast Ohio. My name is Diane Vickett, and my producer is Greg Rotuno. Together we speak with local sustainability leaders and invite you to connect, learn, and live with our community and planet in

Episode and Guest Introduction - Frank Fello

Diane Bickett, Host 0:21

mind. Hello, friends. The sounds you just heard are the sounds of recyclables being sorted at the Cleveland Material Recycling Facility owned by WM, formerly known as Waste Management. It's one of North America's leading providers of solid waste management services. This facility, located in Oakwood Village, is one of four MRFs that receive recyclables collected from Northeast Ohio's curbside and drop-off recycling programs. It's at these MRFs that mixed bottles, cans, paper, and cardboard are sorted before being bailed and sent to manufacturers to be made into new products. So we wanted to bring you an episode explaining what happens at a MRF to help clear up some of the confusion people have about recycling. And Waste Management has offered to help. Greg and I just got a tour of the MRF, which recently underwent a $30 million upgrade and expansion. And here to tell us about how it all works is Frank Philo. Frank is the area vice president for Waste Management. Oh, WM, sorry. And he's going to share what happens to your recyclables once they leave the curb and why it's important to recycle right. Welcome, Frank.

Frank Fello, Guest 1:37

Well, thanks, Diane, for having me. I'm looking forward to a conversation.

Diane Bickett, Host 1:39

Yeah, you came here from Detroit, so we appreciate you driving in today for this.

Frank Fello, Guest 1:43

Absolutely.

Diane Bickett, Host 1:44

I understand that you've been with WM since 1990 and you've been involved with all areas of solid waste management, including landfilling, collection, and recycling. Tell us a little bit about the facilities that you've managed over the years.

Frank Fello, Guest 1:59

Sure. So like you said, I've been with the company in the industry for a little over 36 years. As you mentioned, you know, WM is the leading provider of environmental solutions across the across North America. And, you know, we operate everything from collection operations, the trucks that that pick up on the curb and behind the businesses to recycling facilities like the one we just visited. We're the largest owner of landfills as well, transfer stations. And then we also do secure document destruction and manage regulated medical waste as well. So everything I just said, I've done a little bit of all of that in the 36 years that I've been with the company.

Diane Bickett, Host 2:38

Okay. Well, you're the right guy to have for this interview. I imagine that recycling is probably the most complicated thing for people to understand of all those operations.

Frank Fello, Guest 2:51

It absolutely is. There's still some mystery behind what can be recyclable and how the process works and does it work. So yeah, it's definitely one of the most complicated pieces of the business.

Diane Bickett, Host 3:04

Yeah, for sure. I think it's helpful if people think of recycling as, you're not managing waste, you're managing a resource, and you want to deliver usable materials sorted properly to a facility such as this. So you can then sort them as well as you can and before sending them off to end users. Now, this facility recently had a $30 million investment by your company. Tell us why recycling is important to your company, the environment, and our economy.

Frank Fello, Guest 3:36

Sure. So back in 2022, WM committed $3 billion to sustainable growth across North America. So that included 39 either new or upgraded recycling facilities. This facility is part of that. And so it was a $30 million investment that replaced our outdated facility that we had in Akron, Ohio. So those investments emplore new technologies that make the facilities more efficient. They increase the capacity. And ultimately, they improve the products and the materials that are coming out of the back end of the facility that are going to end users so they can better use those materials and make new products out of them.

Diane Bickett, Host 4:18

Yeah. And increases their value for your company.

Frank Fello, Guest 4:21

Absolutely. Absolutely. For our company also, and also for our customers, too. So you can imagine if we can pull more of those recyclable materials out of the streams that are coming in here, that's value to the customer as well.

Diane Bickett, Host 4:34

Yes, because at the end of our tour, you showed us an audit area where a community's recycling would be audited to get the level of contamination, which all factors into what a community pays for you to process their materials, right?

Frank Fello, Guest 4:49

That's exactly right. So the cleaner the material is that comes into the facility, the better the value is ultimately back to the customer.

Diane Bickett, Host 4:57

Okay. And the material that comes in is called single stream material. That replaced dual stream or source-separated recycling from years and years ago, where you would go to a drop-off site and you might have a container for glass and a container for cans. Curbside recycling morphed into a single stream collection, meaning everything in the container is commingled by the resident. And was that something your industry embraced? It made things a little harder for you in terms of cleaning up the materials for resale.

Frank Fello, Guest 5:30

It did. Now you have the ability to throw that all in one container and then bring it to the facility. And then with the new technology, it can be sorted into those different products. So it really makes it more convenient for consumers, be it businesses or residents, to be able to recycle. And we all know that if it's not convenient, you're not going to do it, right? So the more convenient we can make it, the better.

Diane Bickett, Host 6:16

Okay.

Single Stream Curbside Recycling and Accepted Materials

Diane Bickett, Host 6:17

Tell us what materials you accept here, and then walk us through what happens at the MRF.

Frank Fello, Guest 6:23

Sure. So we take paper products. So think of office paper, newspapers. Although we don't see a whole lot of newspapers anymore, you still see some newspapers. Magazines are everybody's favorite junk mail, right? Those are the paper products we accept, cardboard, so all those smiling boxes that everybody gets on our doorstep. We accept all the uh old corrugated shipping boxes, other clean cardboard packaging, plastic containers. So you think about water bottles, laundry detergent jugs, you know, tubs, those type of things that are commonly used for food, beverages, detergents, those types of things. Metal, so aluminum beverage cans, and then your steel, like in tin, like you know, your can of beans, right? And we take those type of materials and then also glass as well. So all of those materials are what gets recycled through through this facility.

Diane Bickett, Host 7:16

Okay. And it's important for people to know when you say metal, you're not referring to scrap metal.

Frank Fello, Guest 7:21

Correct. Really looking at, you know, those beverage cans and those food cans.

Diane Bickett, Host 7:27

Correct. And then plastic is a whole nother confusing topic. We'll we'll get into later. But walk us through your MRF. What happens when materials are collected off the curb and brought here?

Frank Fello, Guest 7:38

Yeah. So, like you said, the materials collected in our trucks, either off the curb or at businesses in in larger containers. The materials then brought to the recycling facility. In some cases, the facility may be taken to a transfer station because the recycling facility is further away. So we take it to a transfer station, keep that separate from the solid waste, and then put those in a bigger truck. So put four or five small loads into a bigger truck, bring it to the recycling facility. Once it gets here, the material's scaled in, so we weigh it. So we know how much is coming in on inbound. It's dumped on our tip floor. Then it starts to go through the very interesting process that we just went through of sortation. So the material is loaded into the onto the system. In our system right now, the first thing that's separated is cardboard and glass. So we want to get the glass out early because it's very abrasive. So the cardboard floats basically on screens, and then everything else drops through the screens, the glass ultimately coming out, going through a glass breaker, and then going into a separate bin. Then it starts through the process of sortation for the plastics, the papers, all those different types of products. So we have a series of optical sorter sorters, eddy currents, magnets, different things like that that activate when it identifies those certain types of products. So as it goes through the system, the optical sorters are recognizing, oh, that's a water bottle, or oh, that's a HTPE plastic. And it blows a gust of air, basically, and pops it either onto another belt that ultimately takes it to a bin or pops it directly into the bin.

Diane Bickett, Host 9:23

Okay, the optical sorters can be programmed to detect different types of plastics and sends them in different directions based upon what you're able to market. It can.

Frank Fello, Guest 9:33

And you just said the keyword, right? What's important is that the material we're pulling out has an end market for it. So, you know, what's what's really interesting, like our facility here has 12 different opticals, and we can program each one of those opticals to, as we say, pop on different types of material. So as those markets become available, whether they change in the future or you know, whatever difference happens in the future, we can reprogram those opticals to be identified, be able to identify different types of products. I think a good example of that is recently we added paper cups. You know, so we can we can recycle now paper cups, where before that wasn't a marketable material. Now that it is, we can identify those those items and then bail them all ultimately and get them to an end user.

Diane Bickett, Host 10:26

Okay. Well, I do want to get into what your end markets are so people can understand what some of these materials are being made back into. But what you just described as a sorting system that has conveyor belts and catwalks and all this technology that you just described, is that what people think of when they think of a material recycling facility or are they thinking of a bunch of hand sorters along a line?

Frank Fello, Guest 10:51

I I think a lot of people still think it's a it's a bunch of, you know, we're dumping it on the floor and people were kind of digging through it and you know pulling out those items that we want to recycle, and that is, you know, one, it's not efficient, two, that kind of manual labor is very difficult. So this technology really, you know, helps in that in that process, makes it ultimately safer for the employees, and it makes it much more efficient.

Diane Bickett, Host 11:17

And

Safety at the MRF

Diane Bickett, Host 11:18

how how can residents make it safer for the laborers that are here that would be on the line? Because there are there's some dangerous things that come across the belt. I heard recently from the Solid Waste District that someone put a circular saw blade in here. And can you imagine, you know, that coming across the the belt and with all the things with all the air and it could go shooting across and harming somebody? That and batteries and yeah, you definitely saw how fast it moves, right?

Frank Fello, Guest 11:47

And you're right. And you said one of the key things like the batteries, I think, you know, somebody that's been in the industry as long as I've been in the industry, fires. We see more fires now in our trucks, our transfer stations, our recycling plants, and our landfills than we ever had. And, you know, if there's one thing that that people need to hear, it's keep those lithium batteries out of your trash and your recycling because they are incredibly dangerous to our people, to our equipment, and to our facilities. But ultimately, to answer your question, understanding, you know, each recycling facility is a little different on what they can process, understanding what your where your material's going. And a lot of times you can, you know, get on your municipality's website or the processing facility website and understand that. But being sure that you're putting the the stuff that they can process into the bin is what's important.

Diane Bickett, Host 12:44

Right. And we we always use the term wish cycling for the folks that put something in the recycling bin that they wish could be recycled and they figured, well, you guys will just figure out what to do with it, but yeah, you don't want it. And that's a contaminant. That's right.

Frank Fello, Guest 12:59

That's right. When you think of things like garden hoses or Christmas lights, different things like that, where people were like, ah, you know, this this is made up of some plastic or some rubber. Ultimately, those things may be recyclable in some fashion, but they're not recyclable when they come through our processing facility because the equipment just is not designed to process those kind of materials. And ultimately, as you mentioned, a saw blade on the belt is a very dangerous situation where a saw blade could fly off, hit an employee, or he's gonna grab that, get cut. I mean, it can get it can get very dangerous. I mean, we do see, you know, you're to your point, we see some crazy stuff that comes in the recycling stream.

Diane Bickett, Host 13:42

Yeah. And I did read that every house contains like 30 or 40 items that have lithium batteries in them. I assume your company is working with others to create recycling options or proper disposal options for those.

Frank Fello, Guest 13:58

We are, and we're we're working with really all the independent states, as you mentioned earlier. You know, I'm responsible for Michigan, Ohio, and Indiana. I have about 135 different operations across those three states. We work with each of the states independently to try to educate people and really pass legislation because you're right, with the batteries, what's what's difficult about the batteries, it's not just the battery, right? It's, you know, when you think of a bay, it's not just a double-A lithium battery. A lot of times people think, well, I'm not going to throw my cordless drill battery in the trash, but they're going to take that greeting card, you know, the musical greeting card and throw that in the trash. And a lot of times those musical greeting cards, and that's all it takes, is a little battery because they burn so hot to be thrown in there and then get crushed in one of our trucks or get crushed when it gets here to the recycling facility, and that'll create a really devastating fire that's super dangerous for our people, super dangerous for our facilities.

Diane Bickett, Host 14:56

For sure.

Recycling Markets

Diane Bickett, Host 14:58

Let's talk about markets. I think another common misconception is all this stuff is going overseas, but that's really not the case for what you're handling here. Most of your materials are being marketed regionally or in the U.S. Let's talk about each material in some of your end markets. Why don't we start with paper? Because that's easy.

Frank Fello, Guest 15:17

Sure. Paper. So as you said, the majority of our materials processed domestically. So we try to find end users or mills that can take the play the material within the region. So a vast majority of our stuff from Cleveland stays within what we consider the Midwest end market. So when you think of paper, for example, the paper may go over to Pratt Paper over in Wapakonetta, Ohio. Paperworks in Wabash, Indiana, different places like that. So depending on how much capacity a mill has really dictates where that material goes. So OCC is another, or we say OCC. That's old corrugated cardboard. There you go. Same thing with that. You know, it'll go to Grief, uh, which is right here in Ohio, Pratt Paper over in Wapakaneta. You know, so we try to keep it as local as possible. Years ago, years ago, a lot of the stuff would go overseas. But with the onset of more and more end users within the U.S. and more mills being brought online, you know, WM's able to partner with those mills and keep that stuff domestic. Now, one, because those markets are much more stable. Uh two, we want to keep it here in the U.S., obviously. And like I said, we try to do a circular economy so we can keep it as close to our facilities as we can. So it's ultimately being used here in the state of Ohio.

Diane Bickett, Host 16:42

Yeah. And from a business standpoint, it's just cheaper to not have to transport it. So it's logistics, right?

Frank Fello, Guest 16:46

It's easier to put it on a truck and send it down the road 40 miles than to put it on a ship that's going to float around in the ocean for a month.

Diane Bickett, Host 16:53

For sure. For sure. So we talked about fiber. What about soup cans and aluminum cans?

Frank Fello, Guest 16:59

Yeah, so it goes a variety of different places. You know, we use real alloy recycling, AMG resources over in Gary, Indiana, Shoepan and Sons uh does some of our cans. So again, you know, those are all facilities that are located right here in kind of that Ohio, Indiana, Michigan area.

Diane Bickett, Host 17:20

Okay. Glass.

Frank Fello, Guest 17:21

Glass. Glass is always a question, right? So our glass goes over to Sylvania, Ohio to recycle services. So what happens with the glass? So we we break the glass, the glass gets broke, it goes into a bin, but it's really it's mixed, right? You have different colors of glass, you have different sizes of glass. It then goes to a processing facility that further processes that material. So they're gonna sort it by color, by size, all those different things that the end user ultimately needs. Then it's gonna go to an end user where it can be made into new glass bottles or you know, what whatever is needed.

Diane Bickett, Host 17:57

Fiberglass insulation.

Frank Fello, Guest 17:59

Fiberglass insulations, a good point. You know, we partner with the Kanoff Company in Indiana, which is a large producer of fiberglass insulation. A lot of our glass, not from this facility, but from some of our other facilities, goes to Kanoff as well.

Diane Bickett, Host 18:14

Isn't some of it the reflective glass you see on the highways? Yes. So lots of lots of on the roadways.

Frank Fello, Guest 18:20

So when you're going down the road, it's sparkling at your old glass. That's right.

Diane Bickett, Host 18:25

Where are you sending your plastics for recycling?

Frank Fello, Guest 18:27

Yeah, so our plastics, a lot of our plastic goes and you know, it gets, you know, like HDPE, for example, gets made into like drain tiles, picnic benches.

Diane Bickett, Host 18:36

A milk jug. Right, a milk jug. Laundry detergent.

Frank Fello, Guest 18:39

Laundry detergent. You know, our some of the water bottles, for example, like the uniforms that our employees wear, a lot of those are made from water bottles. So we're taking them to different different facilities that can do that. Like the PET, which is your water bottle, that goes to Alpec polyester, which is in Richmond, rigid, rigid plastics, for example, go to Altera Energy, which is right here in in Cuyahoga Falls, and also to Free Point ecosystems over in Hebron. Same thing with the HDPE. You know, we use a variety of different domestic local mills that can process that stuff.

Diane Bickett, Host 19:15

Okay, excellent. How many tons of material are you running through here a year?

Frank Fello, Guest 19:21

So the facility is doing uh it can process about 120 to 140,000 tons a year. So right now we're doing about 10,000 tons a month, give or take, any any given month.

Diane Bickett, Host 19:33

Okay. And just for a point of reference, I looked up how many tons of recyclables Cuyahoga County sent for recycling last year. It was over 55,000 tons in 2025. So and some of that comes here, and some of that goes to the other three MRFs that we mentioned earlier.

Frank Fello, Guest 19:53

And I think I mentioned earlier, you know, sometimes the material may go to a transfer station. So because these facilities are so large and expensive to build, what you see now is a lot of large regional based single stream recycling plants. So, like in my area, for example, I have a single stream recycling facility here in Cleveland, one in Detroit, one in Indianapolis. But then we use kind of a hub and spoke design so we can bring material in. So for example, we process material from Akron, Ohio. So our material in Akron, Ohio will go to a transfer station, be loaded on a larger truck, and then ultimately be sent up here for processing.

Diane Bickett, Host 20:32

Okay, going back to that logistics thing. Right. Okay.

Education and How to Prepare your Recyclables

Diane Bickett, Host 20:35

I want to talk a little bit about education. We're sitting in a room that overlooks your Murph. We can, you might be able to hear some rumbling in the background. I met Jesse Pushpack, who is handles some of the education you do in the community recently. Do you bring school groups in here? Do you go out into the schools? How does that work? How do you get the message out to adults and the general public and kids alike?

Frank Fello, Guest 20:59

Well, a little bit of both. And I would say you just mentioned Jesse, she does an incredible job. You know, we have an education center here where we can bring bring groups in, depending on the size of the group. We can bring groups in here. We can do education right here at our facility, tour the facility. Again, it depends on the size of the group and age and different like things like that. But then we also go out into the community. So we attend community events, go into schools, and you know, really try to educate folks on one, that recycling is real, and two, that it's important to recycle right, because that's what makes recycling real, is that when we're putting the right things in the bins, they can be processed here at the facility and ultimately have an end market.

Diane Bickett, Host 21:45

If you were to describe a perfect recycling bin, how would you describe it?

Frank Fello, Guest 21:51

Well, no batteries. No batteries.

Diane Bickett, Host 21:54

And how how would those materials be prepared? Because I think there's confusion too about do I have to wash my skid? Spaghetti jar out, and what about peanut butter?

Frank Fello, Guest 22:02

So, so no food, no liquid, no bagged recyclables. That's another thing we see often, too, where people put their recyclables in a bag, tie that bag, throw it into the facility. That's very difficult. And a lot of times that's going to end up in, you know, the residue. And the residue is the material that ultimately doesn't get recycled, it ends up in a landfill.

Diane Bickett, Host 22:21

So loose in your cart.

Frank Fello, Guest 22:23

Loose in the cart, break down the boxes, flatten everything that you can. Are you asked about peanut butter? I always tell people with peanut butter jars, look, you paid for the peanut butter, use all of it.

Diane Bickett, Host 22:34

Use as much as get that spatula in there.

Frank Fello, Guest 22:36

That's exactly right. Does it have to be spotless? No. But you know, you if you rinse the cans out, rinse the things out, that's that's great. Before you throw it in there.

Diane Bickett, Host 22:46

Put the lids back on?

Frank Fello, Guest 22:47

We get asked that a lot, right? Do you put the lids on? And what I tell people is if it's if it's the same type of product, so if you think about a water bottle, for example, crush the water bottle after it's empty, screw the lid back on. That way we're sure that lid, because it's so tiny, is going to ultimately get recycled. If that lid is loose, there's a chance that it's going to end up in either paper or cardboard, or it's just not going to make it through the system. Right. The contrary point to that is if you have a glass jar that has a different component. So think about a glass jar with a metal lid, right? Two different types of material, keep those separate. So take your glass jar, rinse it out, throw it in a bin, and take that, you know, steel or aluminum, whatever that lid is, and throw that in separately because that way it's going to make it into the right stream.

Diane Bickett, Host 23:36

Okay, perfect.

Frank Fello, Guest 23:37

And by the way, pizza boxes are recyclable. We get asked that a lot.

Diane Bickett, Host 23:41

Yeah.

Frank Fello, Guest 23:42

You know, don't leave any spare pizza in there. Take as, you know, clean it out, dump it out, crush the box, throw it in your I think people overthink it, especially when it comes to pizza boxes.

Diane Bickett, Host 23:51

It might have a little grease stain on there and they freak out, but it's just, you know, no cheese. It's that's exactly going back to the the smiley boxes. Would you would you recommend that they cut them up so they actually fit in the bin because they'll be better able to be going through your system?

Frank Fello, Guest 24:08

It's just going to create more room in your bin if you break the box down. But but most importantly, by breaking the box down, you know, cutting it up so it fits in that bin, it's going to flow over our system because that's really the first, you know, after the material gets on the belt, goes through pre-sort where we pull out kind of the big crazy stuff that shouldn't be in there, if it's a water tank or a bowling ball or whatever, you know, then it hits that screen. And that that cardboard has to float on top of those screens. So when they're broken down and flat, that's where they they really flow really well.

Diane Bickett, Host 24:40

Okay, perfect. I can't forget plastic, because that's what everyone's confused about. You accept plastic bottles and jugs primarily. Yep. Some of the waste and recycling haulers will process some additional materials like yogurt tubs and things like that. So always good to check with your city to make sure you're putting the right things in here.

Why Recycle

Diane Bickett, Host 25:04

I think we've debunked a few of the recycling myths we might come across, like people who will say, Well, why should I bother with recycling? It just goes to the landfill anyway. What do you have to say to that?

Frank Fello, Guest 25:15

Yeah, I would say, you know, I mentioned earlier, I mean, WM has committed substantial dollars to invest in recycling processing. As I mentioned, this facility is a great example. You know, with a $30 million investment, it's really, you know, put in state-of-the-art equipment that one increases capacity for this entire area, enables people and businesses to be more sustainable and help keep the items out of landfill. But ultimately, it turns uh it helps to protect the things that make Northeast Ohio special. You think of, you know, from Cuyahoga National Park clear to Lake Erie, right? By doing that, really keeps the material out of landfills and it really helps to protect those assets. You know, recycling is real ultimately when the material is collected and it's sorted properly into a marketable commodity and it's used to manufacture new materials. So that's that's really the goal of a recycling facility.

Greg Rotuno, Producer 26:15

Is there a dollar figure on that like microeconomy that you can talk about? A dollar figure as far as like the value of recyclables. Right, the value of the recyclables and like how yeah, how they impact the local economy or your your regional economy.

Frank Fello, Guest 26:34

Yeah, when you think about that, although I don't have an exact number on that, but you think about you know products being made from either virgin materials or from recyclable materials, ultimately it can save those manufacturing plants dollars, which in turn saves the consumer dollars by using recycled material. But ultimately, what it's doing is just making more sustainable products. So instead of using virgin materials that are coming from non-sustainable sources, you're using or at least adding recyclable materials that ultimately keep those costs lower and also make it more sustainable for the environment.

Diane Bickett, Host 27:15

One more myth I think I would like to ask you about. People say if it has a recycling symbol on it, it's recyclable. What is that?

Frank Fello, Guest 27:24

Yeah, yeah, we we get that as a lot as well. And I mentioned it earlier, you know, just because a a material or a product is recyclable, it doesn't mean that we can process it here. You know, it's interesting the other day, you know, we get the uh the food meal boxes to our house, right? Like the HelloFresh, home chef, those kind of things, right? And in those, they have plastic freezer, you know, ice packs in them. Okay. And I noticed a recycling symbol on that.

Diane Bickett, Host 27:55

Oh, geez.

Frank Fello, Guest 27:55

But what right, and what you had to do is really look at the fine print on it. And what it said was cut it open, dump it out, and then contact this website to be able to recycle because plasticfilm recycling.org or something like that. Exactly. So just because a material is recyclable doesn't mean that we can process it. You know, tires, for example, are recyclable, right? And you don't want to see those here. That's right. There's organizations that are out there that can recycle those. It's just that we can't process those. Our systems are not designed to do that. So it's important to understand what your where your material is going and what they can recycle. You can always go to WM slash recycleright, and we have a lot of information. You know, the Cleveland Murph has its own landing page that explains a lot of that information. And then your local solid waste district in Ohio can provide a lot of information on what you should be putting in that bin. And then also resources for other things like lithium batteries. There's resources out there to be able to recycle lithium batteries. I mean, you just have to do a little research to find out how to do that.

Diane Bickett, Host 29:03

Yeah, and oh Northeast Ohioans too can go to their county solid waste district for that information. Kayahoga Recycles.org has a really, really good website where you could just put in your city and find out exactly where your material goes and what should go in the bin. And there's, you know, I guess you rely on people to to recycle right to keep the cost for the service low for their community and also to recycle for the go to the environment, keeping these materials back in circulation.

Frank Fello, Guest 29:40

Right.

Diane Bickett, Host 29:40

We are running out of time a little bit, but I did want to give you a shout out for your other sustainability initiatives. I will put a link to your sustainability report in the show notes because there's a lot going on there with the landfill gas recovery and your your uh food scraps reclamation and all those things.

Frank Fello, Guest 30:00

Yeah,

Landfills, Gas Recovery and Sustainability.

Frank Fello, Guest 30:01

I mean, right here in Northeast Ohio, you know, we have four landfills in Northeast Ohio, all of which have beneficial gas use projects. So the methane gas that's coming out of our landfills right here in Northeast Ohio is either being converted into energy or it's being cleaned and then converted into natural gas as well.

Diane Bickett, Host 30:17

So that was one of your first landfill gas projects here. It was a solar landfill. It was a gas recovery system in place that was piped over to Nestle.

Frank Fello, Guest 30:29

That's right.

Diane Bickett, Host 30:30

Because it was just a mile down the road.

Frank Fello, Guest 30:31

Yep.

Diane Bickett, Host 30:32

One of the coolest things ever. Where are the four landfills? I think it's important for people to know where their waste goes.

Frank Fello, Guest 30:39

Yeah, so we have the Cuyahoga Regional Landfill that you just spoke of. So that's a construction demolition landfill. Then we have our Geneva landfill as well, that's up in Ashtabula County, our Mahoning landfill, which is over in Mahoning County, and then American landfill, which is in Waynesburg. Like I like I mentioned, Waynesburg actually, that facility has a large renewable natural gas plant. So we're producing natural gas at that facility that ultimately goes in the pipeline. And then you think about WM and you mentioned some of our other sustainability uh focuses, you know, a lot of our trucks, the vast majority of our trucks, about 75% of those trucks run on compressed natural gas as well. So we're producing landfill gas, cleaning that gas, putting it in a pipeline, and then ultimately using that to operate our trucks as well.

Diane Bickett, Host 31:27

Thank you so much for mentioning that. That that's very cool. Well, I really appreciate you sitting down with Greg and I and talking about all this important work. You do so much to keep our communities clean and helping our environment. And I also want to thank all the recyclers out there that are all trying to do the right thing, keep it up. Because if you're not recycling, you're throwing it all away, right?

Frank Fello, Guest 31:51

That's right. That's right. Well, I appreciate you taking the time to sit down with us as well. So it's been a good conversation.

Diane Bickett, Host 31:56

It has been. Thank you.

Greg Rotuno, Producer 31:57

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