FIELD TRIP(Sims Recycling Solutions)

It was very engaging to see a sustainable business model with a closed loop approach to responsible reuse and recycling of non-biodegradable waste.  I learnt from the trip that their approach has been able to minimize greenhouse gases,freight costs and simplify logistics and ensure environmentally responsible handling and disposition of all electronic equipment.

This is a business model that has provided financial stability for the company involved, I am wondering why we don’t have more companies like this in the city which will agglomerate carbon foot print reduction because factually they cannot handle the waste produced by about 18 million inhabitants in the metro area.

3 thoughts on “FIELD TRIP(Sims Recycling Solutions)

  1. saloua

    SIMS Municipal Recycling visit:
    Before the visit to the SIMS Municipal Recycling, I thought that this facility is responsible for recycling and reusing the recyclable garbage to produce other products. But I learned that this facility is responsible for, basically, sorting out the garbage which they make profit of if it is recyclable by selling to different national and international companies. I learned that they have been open for less than two years, and they are a private company and have a 20-year contract with the department of sanitation. In addition, they are a small division of the bigger company called SIMS Metal Management. This facility is responsible for recycling the garbage that is produced by households and all city public institutions of New York except for Staten Island that goes to another facility in New Jersey City, under this facility’s control, and small section of lower Manhattan that goes to the same facility in NJC because of the transportation wise it costs less to go there. In addition, most of the garbage they got is via boat, which makes more sense why they are near water, which also have many economic and environmental advantages, such as less pollution on the roads. This division of SIMSMM we visited received 50% of NYC paper, but they don’t process it through their machinery, instead the distribute to other companies. In other words, this facility is to separate/ sort the glass, metal and plastic garbage. In addition, as I mentioned above, this division don’t reuse the recyclable glass, metal and plastic, instead, they separate this garbage into different categories and sell them to the manufacturers that reuse it and produce new things out of it. The other thing s that even though this facility doesn’t recycle, for example, all plastic because not every plastic is recyclable but their contract with the city make make it must for them to look at this unrecyclable plastic before deciding either is recyclable or not. For glass, they cannot recycle all glass-made stuff; it is still limited to bottles and jars which make up to 45% of the weight of the garbage they get. For the carton, it is better to keep it separate from the paper, because it has plastic outside and it may have liquid which may damage the quality of paper by wetting it. The other thing that is really amazing about this facility is that they have more than two-mile convey belt that the garbage passes through from one phase to another, from the machinery that opens the plastic bags to the compressing machine.

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  2. Cathy B

    The field trip to SIMS was very interesting and the weather was awful. The information given by our tour guide was concise and factual, I never realized how much recyclable waste remains a process that is not practiced by the majority of the city’s residents since the inception of SIMS, juicy 20 year contract with the city. The principles behind recycling are great and the 80/85 people employed there also help the economy somewhat, but the fact that they have such a long subsidy is somewhat disturbing, they do not leave any room for competition is the first fact I found of interest. The second fact is that according to our guide only 15% of the recyclable glass, aluminum out of 100% is collected. The other fact is how they transport the materials, via barge is economically friendly, plus the recycled material is better than starting from scratch to produce what can be safely recycled.

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  3. Jluisestrada

    After visiting SIM Municipal Recycling Facility, I learned a few things. Firstly, all the machines work on separating metal, plastic, and paper. It’s fantastic to see how things work around in the facility. Secondly, after sorting out all plastics, papers and etc., they sell plastics, paper, and metal to companies who want to buy these materials. The benefits of recycling is keeping our environment clean. Also, all the recyclable trash that is collected from Brooklyn and Manhattan are transported to this facility. One of my favorite moments was interacting with conveyor belt on how it separates non-metal cans so it doesn’t mix with real metal cans. The magnet inside the conveyor belt holds iron and other metal materials like food cans and not soda cans. Recycling is very important and the value it has to reuse and produces new products.

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