Athens, Irwindale CA
A cutting-edge 70-tons-per-hour facility set to revolutionize recycling and resource recovery in the region.
Irwindale, CA (February 11, 2025) — Athens Services, a leading waste and recycling services company in Southern California, is preparing to open a new state-of-the-art Materials Recovery Facility (MRF) in the City of Irwindale.
The facility will process a mix of material streams including dry commercial, residential, mixed residential, and dry MSW, with a process capacity of 70-tons-per-hour. The MRF is designed to be highly flexible, with the ability to recover recyclable commodities or create a Refuse-Derived Fuel (RDF) product.
Nestled in Los Angeles County’s San Gabriel Valley, the MRF will be housed in a new 155,500 square foot building and is projected to divert nearly 200,000 tons of material away from landfills annually. This flagship MRF represents a significant milestone for Athens Services and underscores their commitment to serving the millions of residents and businesses of the Greater Los Angeles area for years to come.
“This facility represents a new era in waste management and sustainability for Athens Services and the communities we serve,” said Riel Johnson, VP of Resource Recovery. “By combining cutting-edge technology with sustainable practices, we’re leading the way in resource recovery.”
The MRF was designed by CP Group in San Diego, California. The facility features double infeed lines, each with a 35-tons-per-hour capacity. By including a CP Auger Screen ™, the system does not require a traditional pre-sort station. This design element results in reduced manual sorting, as well as an increase in system throughput and safety. The OCC Auger Screen ™ fractionates large materials such as old corrugated cardboard (OCC), wood, rigid materials, metals, and large trash. Smaller materials pass through another series of scalping auger screens for further material fractionation.
Next, the CP Disc Screen ™ separates 2-dimensional from 3-dimensional materials, preparing them for downstream sorting by advanced Near-Infrared (NIR) and AI systems paired with air ejection. Sixteen MSS NIR Optical Sorters will be featured in the facility. Additionally, ten MSS FiberMax ™ Optical Sorters will automatically sort fiber at belt speeds of 1,000 feet per minute with more than 1,000 picks per minute, offering flexibility to produce mixed paper grades or RDF material.
The container line will be completely automated and will include a secondary infeed design that allows the operator to process mixed containers without running the front-end of the system. The container line will feature six NIR MSS PlasticMax™ Optical Sorters and two MSS VIVID AI ™ units to perform quality control for aluminum and polyethylene terephthalate (PET), while high-density polyethylene (HDPE) is quality-controlled using multi-lane PlasticMax ™ sorters. The VIVID AI ™ technology combines AI sensors with air ejection for precision sorting, ensuring optimal recovery and quality control for containers.
“Athens Services and CP Group have a long-standing relationship and we are truly honored to be their partners in opening this new state-of-the-art materials recovery facility, poised to be one of the largest and most technologically advanced in the nation,” said Terry Schneider, President and CEO, CP Group.
Construction of the Irwindale MRF began in September 2024 and is nearing completion. The facility is expected to be fully operational by May 2025.
For more information about Athens Services and the new Irwindale MRF, please visit AthensServices.com/Irwindale-MRF.
This article was originally posted, February 12th, 2025: Recycling Inside
