The Connecticut Resource Recovery Authority held the grand opening of its new recycling center in Hartford Thursday.
The new facility will allow the 70 Mid-Connecticut Project towns to recycle a wider variety of items including junk mail and chipboard, which is a material used to package things like cereal.
The new facility was built by FCR, Inc., a subsidiary of Casella Waste Systems, Inc. The facility cost $6 million to build and will help provide a revenue stream to CRRA because for every ton of material towns recycle CRRA will get about $34 from FCR.
FCR in turn sells the recycled material on the commodities market for more money.
It costs the 70-member towns nothing per ton to recycle, but it costs them $69 per ton to get rid of trash. CRRA estimated that its towns will save almost $4.3 million by recycling a wider assortment of products.
The new recycling facility also created 30 new jobs.
To find out more about the recycling program click here.