Navigating Modern MRF Operations

When it starts on Jan. 1, 2026, Ontario’s updated EPR for packaging program will come with new business opportunities for MRF operators and haulers.

The province has long been planning the official transition of the management of this extended producer responsibility program, also known as the Blue Box program. The change will make packaging producers fully responsible for collecting and recycling materials, as opposed to the previous model where municipalities split costs and responsibilities with the producers.

Several changes are expected to give waste businesses a boost. Municipalities will no longer manage their own recycling collection, meaning companies like GFL Environmental, Miller Waste Systems, Emterra and WM of Canada have taken on those new collection contracts throughout the province in their stead. 

Some small businesses that received municipal recycling services will no longer have that service in January. Instead, they will be required to secure private recycling collection in 2026, a move that represents another major business opportunity for waste operators.

MRF operators, including WM and GFL, are also expected to benefit from a significant increase in collection volumes as a result of the updated EPR program, according to Circular Materials, a Blue Box producer responsibility organization. 

Circular Materials has touted the program changes as a move to improve collection rates. It has also expanded the list of materials not previously accepted in curbside programs to include items like paper cups, black plastic and toothpaste tubes. But the anticipated collection volume changes have also raised questions about whether there will be stable end markets for the new material. 

The EPR transition process started in July 2023, with communities gradually onboarding to the new producer-run program over time. As of Jan. 1, 2026, 383 communities and 12 First Nations in Ontario will be fully transitioned.

The change “marks a major milestone and step forward for recycling in Ontario,” said Allen Langdon, CEO of Circular Materials, in a statement announcing the new program.

Waste companies and municipalities adjust to new collection contracts

Municipal contract changeovers have been a major feature of the Blue Box transition, with Circular Materials executing 948 collection contracts as part of this process, Langdon said in an email to Waste Dive. Some of these contracts are already in progress, while others will start on Jan. 1. 

“Some of these changes present an enormous opportunity for some of these private contractors,” said Calvin Lakhan, director of York University’s circular innovation hub who studies the economic impact of recycling programs on the province.

Instead of collection being managed by hundreds of separate municipalities, “there’s only going to be a handful of players that operate in the space, and they can now more effectively manage materials,” Lakhan said. “There’s going to be a lot of logistical optimization, a lot of operational optimization.”

Many municipalities have been providing service in their communities for decades. While Circular Materials has said residents shouldn’t experience service interruptions, the new companies will need to get to know the specific needs of their new communities and address any growing pains, Lakhan said.

GFL will be among the major companies participating in the transition process. The company did not respond to inquiries about what its new collection footprint will look like in 2026, but during its Q3 earnings call in November, executives said new EPR contracts throughout Canada had contributed to its highest-ever margin for adjusted earnings before income, taxes, depreciation and amortization. GFL expects that benefit to level off in coming quarters.

Several municipalities that once handled their own recycling collection have announced GFL will take over services, including the Toronto suburbs of Georgina and Peel and the town of Kenora on the western edge of the province. 

Other established waste companies will also pick up new contracts. Emterra will take over municipal recycling service in towns including Simcoe, and Miller Waste will pick up services in cities including Richmond Hill. Emterra and Miller Waste will each service parts of the Waterloo region, while Norfolk Disposal Services will take on collection in Haldimand County. WM of Canada started collection in Guleph in January 2025 as part of the rollout.

Many of these companies may pick up new commercial contracts as part of the Blue Box transition. Some small businesses that previously received recycling collection services from their municipality will now need to secure private waste and recycling collection services as of Jan. 1. 

For many waste contractors, “it's a new market that opens up,” Lakhan said. But that change has dismayed some municipalities, which lobbied Ontario’s provincial government to allow businesses to be serviced under the same contracts. 

It’s unclear how many businesses will need to comply with this new commercial collection aspect of the EPR program. The Greater Oshawa Chamber of Commerce, which represents a region east of Toronto, estimates about 3,000 businesses in that region alone would be affected.

MRFs are making major investments, but questions about end markets emerge

In January, WM expects to open two brand-new recycling facilities in the province to manage higher volumes of recycled materials. One will open in the Waterloo region southwest of Mississauga, while a second MRF will open in the Greater Napanee area in Southeastern Ontario, and both will feature AI-powered sorters and other automated equipment.

When complete, the new facilities are expected to process a combined 30% of Ontario’s total Blue Box volume through contracts with Circular Materials, a WM spokesperson said in an email.

GFL Environmental is also undertaking a major retrofit and upgrade of one of its facilities in the Toronto area, Circular Materials said. The PRO first entered into an agreement with GFL in 2023 to use the Arrow Road facility for growing volumes of material from the Blue Box program in the region, calling it “a pivotal milestone” in the EPR transition. 

When combined, these three MRFs will handle about half of all Circular Materials’ Blue Box processing volume in the province, Langdon said. 

Circular Materials also has agreements with six other existing MRFs that will continue to process the remaining 50% of its volume. “These facilities have and will continue to make ongoing investments in system upgrades to support improved recovery of targeted materials,” Langdon said. 

One factor Circular Materials says will drive MRF volumes is a new unified material list for recycled materials. Residents anywhere in the province will be able to recycle the same types of materials, which the PRO says streamlines the recycling process and makes it less confusing.

Along with commonly recycled items like cardboard and aluminum cans, the expanded list will also include deodorant, ice cream tubs, frozen juice containers and coffee cups. 

“Because of the standardized mix of materials, it allows for strategic investments at the MRF. They know they have to find a way to sort black plastics and toothpaste tubes,” Lakham said. A unified collection list offers MRF operators a measure of assurance that any expensive sortation equipment investments they make will result in the collection volumes to back it up, he said.

The unified collection list also creates a “fair playing field across the entire province in terms of what [MRFs] are trying to capture,” he added.

But Lakham points out that some new materials added to the list have limited end markets, raising questions about how MRFs will fare if they can’t find buyers for the materials — and what role producers will need to play if major end market gaps emerge. 

Circular Materials has said the unified collection list is part of the EPR program’s overarching goal of driving recycling and packaging innovation and creating stronger accountability for producers. For some items on the list, such as paper coffee cups, the PRO added them after conducting a specific recycling pilot program. And WM recently announced it would accept paper to-go cups across its collection network, noting recent specification changes and motivation from major paper mills.

But some other items, like toothpaste tubes, have more limited end markets with few innovations in sight, Lakham said. “At least in the immediate future, I don't see many viable end-use products being created, but over time, that might change. It really depends on whether they can get a critical mass of material, and whether they can convince enough people to say it has value.”

Numerous recycling facilities have invested in equipment and tech upgrades recently, spurred by upcoming extended producer responsibility laws or municipal and corporate sustainability commitments. Here’s a look at some announcements across Colorado, Pennsylvania, Oregon and California during fall 2025.

Apex Waste Solutions upgrades Steamboat Springs recycling facility for rural volumes

Colorado-based Apex Waste Solutions has upgraded its Steamboat Springs recycling center to take on a higher volume of material in the rural, mountainous Yampa Valley region. 

The state is preparing to implement a new EPR for packaging law, which is expected to help increase recycled materials collection throughout Colorado. That’s in part because the program is designed to fund and reimburse new and improved recycling programs. 

Apex, a portfolio company of private equity firm Kinderhook Industries, is particularly expecting higher volumes of recyclables in rural areas that have previously lacked service, including areas neighboring Steamboat Springs. 

Upgrades at the recycling facility include a system for sorting cardboard, as well as new equipment to compact hand-sorted plastic and other recyclables. More efficient compaction equipment makes it possible to pack higher volumes of recyclables into trucks bound for MRFs in the Denver metro area, cutting transportation costs in half, said CEO Scott Lukach.

The recycling center is part of a property Apex acquired from Twin Enviro in 2024. Before the upgrades, the facility “could only handle about a third of what we’re handling today, which is challenging from an economic standpoint,” he said. Now, the recycling center handles about 4,500 tons annually, but is capable of processing up to 15,000 tons with the new systems, he said. 

Apex partnered with the city of Steamboat Springs and Routt County on the expansion program, he said. The city and county have been particularly important partners in educating residents about the recycling programs, which he said has led to less contamination and will likely lead to more volumes.

“We’re ready to take on a lot of growth,” said Lukach.

Glacier installs AI-enabled sorting equipment at Penn Waste

AI-enabled robotics company Glacier has installed its technology at Penn Waste’s MRF in York County, Pennsylvania. 

Penn Waste, a subsidiary of Waste Connections, describes itself as one one of the largest single-stream MRFs in the Northeastern U.S. The sorting system was installed on its fiber line to boost cardboard collection, Glacier said in a news release.

The project was partly funded by Cox Enterprises as part of the conglomerate’s circular economy initiatives. The Penn Waste facility processes about 225 tons of recycling each year from a nearby Cox Automotive wholesale auction site, which provides vehicle sales, reconditioning, and other services.

Glacier says it has doubled the amount of total installed units in the past year. After Penn Waste’s installation, Glacier says it now plays a role in processing recycling for 1 in 10 people in the U.S. Other recent installations took place in Chicago, Detroit, Los Angeles, Phoenix and San Francisco, the company said.

WM opens new MRFs in Pennsylvania and Oregon

WM opened two new AI-powered recycling facilities in September: the Grand Central facility in Pennsylvania and the Portland facility in Oregon.

WM’s $48 million Grand Central recycling facility in Pen Argyl, Pennsylvania, can process up to 120,000 tons of material a year. Optical sorters and volumetric scanners allow equipment to it to collect and sort more types of plastics, including PP yogurt containers it had not previously collected at that location, WM said in a news release. 

Meanwhile, WM’s $47 million facility in Portland is able to process up to 38 tons of material per hour, leveraging artificial intelligence and other technologies the company says will more efficiently sort materials, achieve higher quality standards and help advance Oregon’s recycling goals. 

WM says the opening of the MRF is timed to help Oregon “accelerate the modernization of the statewide recycling system” under the state’s new extended producer responsibility law, known as the Recycling Modernization Act.   

The two new MRFs are part of WM’s ongoing plan to invest more than $1.4 billion in 39 new and upgraded recycling facilities across North America between 2022 and 2026. Altogether, these dozens of sites will add about 2.8 million tons of incremental annual processing capacity by the end of 2026.

BLT Enterprises upgrades Fremont MRF with AI automation

Waste management and industrial real estate company BLT Enterprises has invested $10 million in improvements at its recycling and transfer station in Fremont, California. 

MRF improvements at the 187,000-square-foot facility include the installation of two robots and five optical sorters. The equipment upgrades will enable BLT to recover an additional 3 million pounds of recyclable material each year, said General Plant Manager Rich Dubiel in a news release. 

The optical sorters and robots are expected to be fully operational by the end of 2025.

In addition to new sorting equipment, BLT upgraded its solar power system with more efficient models that provide power to over 65% of the facility. It also upgraded restrooms and common spaces throughout the facility. 

“These enhancements will significantly boost recycling recovery, decrease landfill waste, and propel us further towards achieving our climate action objectives,” said Fremont City Manager Karena Shackelford in a statement.

BLT Enterprises secured the financing from City National Bank, with help from the California Pollution Control Financing Authority, it said in a news release.

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The Can Manufacturers Institute and the Household & Commercial Products Association published a guide aimed at increasing MRF acceptance of aerosol cans to boost recycling rates.

The trade groups are working with Circular Action Alliance to expand aerosol can recycling in Oregon as part of an extended producer responsibility for packaging program that began in July 2025. CAA determined that “collecting and processing empty aerosols can be done safely and efficiently, distinguishing it from the challenges posed by non-empty containers that still hold residual content.”  

Aerosol cans are often considered a hazard by some MRF operators, and aren’t accepted in all curbside programs. In 2025, How2Recycle downgraded the cans from “widely recyclable” to “check locally.” 

The new playbook from the Aerosol Recycling Intiative, a joint effort between the trade groups, seeks to address common MRF concerns around worker safety, fires and uncertain end markets.  

“Yes We Can! A Practical Guide to Aerosol Recycling at MRFs” is based on interviews with 13 MRF operators in 11 states, some of which explicitly accept aerosol cans, some of which do not, and some of which accept aerosols without advertising it. 

It suggested implementing procedures for inspection and safe handling to reduce fire risk, such as having staff manually sort non-empty aerosol cans and adding fire suppression systems. Consumer education is another critical piece of the solution, the playbook notes.

The playbook also included case studies, such as the example of a MRF in Utah that unofficially accepts aerosols and chose to install a Fire Rover detection and suppression system as a safety measure. It also notes efforts by CAA and industry trade groups to work with recyclers and officials in the Portland, Oregon, region to gather better data about aerosol cans in the recycling stream and test educational messaging.

Roxanne Sharif, director of sustainability at CMI, said in a press release that the hope is the playbook “equips MRF operators with resources, including from their peers, to confidently assess and advance their operations while helping create meaningful, industry-wide impact.”

Miriam Holsinger, co-president of Eureka Recycling in Minnesota, said her facility accepts aerosol cans, but “when people say they don't I completely understand.”

“For us, it was kind of a legacy thing,” she said. “We've just accepted them for a long time, so we've already had to manage them. I tell people all the time, it's so much easier to put something on the ‘yes’ list than take it off. If we said they’re not accepted anymore, we’d probably still get the same amount.” 

Eureka has had several thermal events “that we’re pretty sure were caused by aerosol cans, so the safety concerns are 100% real,” Holsinger said, adding that the facility has protocols around keeping the area around the baler clear of flammable material and staff, in case of fireballs.  

The Aerosol Recycling Initiative formed in 2022 with a goal of an 85% recycling access rate for aerosol cans by 2030. The rate is under debate as How2Recycle’s downgrade means the group determined that less than 60% of Americans can recycle aerosol cans through curbside or drop-off programs. That’s based on data from The Recycling Partnership, which found a 39% acceptance rate for aluminum aerosol containers in the U.S. in 2025. 

However, the Aerosol Recycling Initiative found that 62% of U.S. residents have access to a recycling program that accepts aluminum aerosol containers, and 61% have access for steel aerosol containers. The discrepancy is because some facilities don’t advertise that they accept the cans, the initiative said, and it planned to work with The Recycling Partnership to clarify the rates. 

The playbook stated that “while there are inherent risks to accepting empty aerosol cans, potential economic and future-proofing benefits may outweigh or even address some of the risks.” 

The benefits include increased revenue, alignment with consumer expectations, higher diversion rates, reduced residuals and non-accepted items and preparedness for EPR programs.

Previous research commissioned by the initiative found that U.S. MRFs could see an additional $39 million in annual revenue, or about $77,000 in per MRF, plus $8.5 million in avoided disposal costs, assuming a 50% recycling rate. 

In 2024, the group published a white paper that found that of nearly 900 aerosols from two MRFs, just under 80% had less than 3% residue. The paper said aerosols should be included on recyclability lists in EPR programs. 

The playbook’s authors argue that “end markets do exist, and when the cans are properly sorted and emptied, they can be a valuable source of aluminum and steel.” Steel aerosol cans could be incorporated into bulk ferrous metal scrap, and aluminum aerosol cans, while rejected by sheet mills, can go to scrap dealers, deox producers and intermediary processors. 

Holsinger said Eureka puts nonferrous aerosol cans into a lower-grade aluminum bale, and ferrous cans in with steel and tin bales. 

“We have a really high-quality product, so we haven't had any issue moving it, but we only make a load every two months and we’re not a tiny MRF,” she said, noting the economics might not make sense for all MRFs. 

EPR programs, such as the one active in Oregon, could help by taking aerosol cans in drop-off locations. This could make the process safer and increase volumes, Holsinger said, though only time will tell.

AI-enabled tech startup Visia sees itself as being in the problem-solving business, not just the AI business.

The company, which builds custom systems for recyclers in the MRF, C&D and electronics recycling space, counts companies such as Rumpke Waste and Recycling, Casella Waste Systems, LRS and Coastal Waste among its clients. Visia got its start a few years ago by offering technologies meant to help these facilities optimize equipment and operations, and it’s best known for its X-ray sensors, which can be programmed to detect certain materials or hazards such as batteries, particularly on crowded belts. It also provides other cameras, sensors and custom dashboard offerings.  

“We always ask, ‘What are the problems you’re trying to solve for? And then we'll make a recommendation. We’re not just trying to sell you a sensor,” said Aoife Duna, Visia’s head of revenue.

After raising $6.4 million in seed financing in 2025, the company has been focused on expanding its range of technology offerings.

But Visia is also expanding its services offering artificial intelligence-enabled camera equipment meant to help companies automate waste audit processes and material composition reports, or improve sorting equipment or throughput strategies. It also offers custom dashboards for clients to track and monitor their custom needs. 

“We've had pretty significant growth in the last year,” Duna said, noting Visia went from installing its tech at about a dozen facilities to over 30. Each installation is significantly different from company to company, she said. 

Visia aims to differentiate itself from other AI-powered tech companies by working across multiple recycling verticals, such as MRFs, scrap and e-scrap recycling facilities and C&D recyclers, she said. That allows Visia to collect a wider AI dataset, which Duna said helps accelerate how much the tech improves over time.

Visia also aims to offer technologies that can work hand-in-hand with facilities’ existing robotics or AI-enabled sorting systems. Visia’s tech is meant to identify hazards that are buried under other materials on fast-moving belts, something Duna said is harder for some robotics technologies to master. 

“Where we started was asking, ‘Can we characterize the material that's coming through [facilities] as a way of replacing manual audits?’ But it became so clear that a lot of the problems lie under the surface, and those are things that people are looking to detect,” she said. 

Customizing for operations improvements

Casella Waste Systems has installed Visia technology in six of its MRFs, each with up to six or seven cameras per location. 

The technology has been instrumental in tracking how equipment is performing and gaining insight into what kinds of materials are moving through each facility, said Lizzy Elles, Casella’s operations initiatives manager. The cameras are easily movable, which Elles said is ideal for troubleshooting or “adding another data point” to decide on key equipment or operations changes. “It’s a tool that’s very nimble and capital-light,” she said.

Visia can create custom dashboards for its customers, a feature Elles said helps workers visually access waste streams and easily pull up information that allows them to conduct quality control assessments and troubleshoot contamination problems, among other applications. 

Casella has invested in key automation upgrades over the last few years, and the Visia equipment has helped work alongside those other infrastructure improvements, she said. 

“We've really been able to utilize it very strongly to identify places where we may need to put some investment into our systems,” she said. 

Technology for hazard detection

Battery fires have long plagued the recycling industry, and Visia has increasingly been working with companies on how to use its range of technologies to help prevent future fires, Duna said.

Rumpke Waste & Recycling has been vocal about the installation of its Visia X-ray system on the pre-sort line at its Cincinnati MRF. That facility burned down several years ago, and batteries were a suspected cause, said Jeff Snyder, senior vice president of recycling and sustainability, during a fire prevention presentation in May during WasteExpo in Las Vegas.

Snyder estimated the X-ray system identifies more than 100 hazards a day, a significant number considering it’s installed on one of the facility’s two presort lines. “It’s a 50-ton-an-hour facility, and we have this to monitor about 25 tons of that material,” he said. The technology uses a laser pointer to indicate where the battery appears on the line, and workers then physically pull it off, he said.

The technology can see through layers of densely packed material and identify the batteries through an item’s atomic density, which Duna said allows companies to more precisely customize what they’re looking for. “We can distinguish between a lithium-ion battery and an alkaline battery or a lead acid,” she said. “Some customers want to have that high level of detail. They may not care about the lead acid, but care about lithium-ion. We also work with battery recyclers who need to have a very thorough breakdown of the chemical compositions.”

Visia recently rolled out a cargo X-ray technology meant to help recyclers price inbound materials by scanning a full truck bed before the material inside is further sorted, she said. “Not only does it proactively identify hazards, but we can distinguish between materials: What's ferrous versus nonferrous versus dirt.”

Wisconsin has updated some of the regulations that MRF operators, haulers and local governments must follow under the state’s recycling and waste disposal rules. The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources held a webinar to update MRFs on the changes, which took effect July 1, 2025.

MRFs are now required to reach at least a 12% glass recycling rate from residential sources, or submit a glass recycling improvement plan. The updated rules also set a maximum residual rate of 20%, which will be enforced starting in 2027, according to the Wisconsin DNR.

Starting in 2027, MRFs that process more than 5,000 tons of material a year will need to follow state owner financial responsibility rules meant to cover closure and cleanup costs if a facility ceases operation. OFR is already required for some other solid waste processors in the state.

Wisconsin’s waste reduction and recycling law, first established in 1990, bans the disposal or incineration of many recyclable materials such as certain plastic and glass containers, cardboard and some kinds of electronics. State law also requires that every Wisconsin resident must have some kind of residential recycling or drop-off service “within easy access” and should be provided with recycling information.

 

A 2020 state audit recommended refreshing some of the rules that governed “effective recycling programs,” since those rules were last updated in 2005, according to the DNR. 

 

The rule changes, which went through a stakeholder engagement process before being finalized, aim to keep recycling programs effective, refresh recycling goals and ensure that MRFs are maintaining material quality, DNR said.

 

The new 12% glass recycling rate and 20% residual cap likely won’t be a problem for most MRFs, said Jennifer Semrau, DNR’s waste reduction and diversion coordinator, during an Aug. 26 webinar. That’s because the new glass recycling rates were calculated based on collection and recycling data from previous years. The rule also excludes glass collected from commercial sources that can have an unpredictable amount of glass compared to other materials like cardboard.

 

“This is just to make sure that people are making a good faith effort to recycle glass at their facilities,” added Casey Krausensky, DNR’s solid waste coordinator. 

 

Most MRFs are also sending less than 20% of their material for disposal, Semrau added, but the facilities with higher residuals will start getting warnings from DNR in the period before the regulation is fully in effect in March 2027. “This allows us to tell the general public that material that goes to the recycling facility is being recycled,” she said.  

 

Another notable update is the requirement that certain MRFs budget sufficient funds in case they need to permanently close the facility. That funding would need to cover required “long-term care,” such as maintenance or monitoring. 

 

This OFR funding would only be used if the operator abandons or is unable to properly close a facility, Krausensky said, “so if you close your facility or MRF and properly clean up all the standing materials on the site, all that happens is the OFR is returned to you,” she said.

 

MRFs, transfer facilities and storage facilities must also take more specific steps to properly store unbaled paper, plastic or other “easily airborne” material so it doesn’t become litter, according to the rules. Transfer and storage facilities must segregate recyclables separate from solid waste.

 

The updated regulations also have provisions for local governments, known in the law as responsible units or RUs. These RUs — which could include a municipality, county, tribe, solid waste management system or another entity — have long been required to establish and operate recycling programs in localities throughout the state. 

 

Those responsibilities include providing recycling education to residents. That education should cover specific topics like how to recycle items banned from landfill disposal including used oil, yard materials and electronics. As part of the new rule update, RU education will now need to also include battery and food waste guidance. MRFs will need to communicate with RUs and haulers about the materials MRFs accept for recycling and to review contracted RUs’ educational materials for accuracy.

 

Other rule updates provide more specific instructions for how RUs must offer “adequate” recycling options for multifamily complexes and require RUs to offer additional recycling drop-off locations if they currently only offer monthly curbside collection to residents.