Metals Recycler Builds Rare $7.5 Million Scrap Processing Plant

by | Oct 6, 2016

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upstate-shreddingMetals recycling company Upstate Shredding – Weitsman Recycling says it will build a $7.5 million heavy media plant in Owego, New York.

The media plant, which will process zorba generated by auto shredding operations and other sources, will be one of only a few such plants in operations in the US, according to the company. It is scheduled to be online by late December.

Upstate Shredding received a $1 million New York Empire State Development grant to build the project. The remaining $6.5 million will come from private sources.

The plant will use SGM Magnetics’ equipment and processing technology to process zorba and produce four commodities: twitch, circuit boards extracted by color sorting technology, aluminum and a heavies package.

Zorba is a shredded mix of nonferrous metals consisting primarily of aluminum generated by eddy-current separator or other segregation techniques. Other nonferrous metals found in zorba include copper, brass, zinc and stainless. The system will process up to 15 tons of zorba per hour, separating the aluminum from the heavy nonferrous metals.

Sorting nonferrous metals from zorba presents a financial opportunity for recyclers, writes Tomra Sorting Solutions’ Judit Jansana Borrajo in a Recycling Today column. “By sorting zorba, it is possible to produce high-quality end fractions of aluminium, copper and brass, which can then be sold on to smelters (both within their regions and overseas) at a much higher market value.”

Upstate Shredding will feed the media plant with its two company owned shredders in Owego, New York and New Castle, Pennsylvania and will also buy material from outside sources throughout North America.

The project will create about 25 new full-time jobs.

Upstate Shredding currently operates 18 locations throughout New York and Pennsylvania. It expects to process more than 1 million tons of ferrous and 250 million pounds of nonferrous metal this year.

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