Winnipeg is Canada Fibers’ new frontier

‘There are lots of people and Blue Box materials between here and the west coast, so I can imagine our MRF operations could well be copied and placed in other geographies outside Ontario,’ Canada Fibers’ vice president Mark Badger told Recycling International early in 2018.

Now, one year later, the paper and plastics recycling major puts its money where its mouth is. Boosted by ever-stricter regulation designed to limit landfilling and support recycling, Canada Fibers has expanded its capacity in other Canadian provinces. Recently, the company was awarded a contract to design, build and operate a 7 500 m2 single stream facility in Winnipeg, Manitoba.

Smart sorters

The facility will be equipped with an integrated cascading cluster of infrared optical sorters, ‘proven to advance material recovery rates and purity levels’.  The optical sorters, combined with other technologically advanced equipment, will make the plant ‘extremely flexible’ in response to ever-changing recyclable material composition. Operations will start in the second quarter of 2019.

High purity levels

Canada Fibers has caught another big fish: the retrofitting of an existing MRF in Peel, Ontario. The facility, expected to be completed by early 2020, will house ‘state-of-the-art’ technologies, enabling optimal recovery, purity and flexibility to meet ever-stricter end market quality requirements. 

The two facilities will each be able to sort 100 000 tonnes of materials per year.