The City of Milwaukee, in partnership with Waukesha County, retrofit the MRF in the Menomonee Valley with new, state-of-the-art equipment. This is a single-stream (single-sort) facility, which means the facility is designed to accept cans, cartons, glass, paper, and plastic mixed together. A combination of humans and machinery sort the materials into several marketable categories to be baled and sold.
The retrofitted facility brought recycling to the Menomonee Valley once again! In the 1990's and early 2000's the city processed recyclables at the Mount Vernon location. This facility was a dual-stream facility, requiring residents to sort paper from their bottles and cans. In Fall 2011, the City began a single-sort recycling program, requiring recyclables to be transferred to a Waste Management facility in Germantown for processing while the City's MRF was retrofitted to accept the new single-stream materials. Our Mount Vernon MRF began processing materials again in March 2015 and serves both the City of Milwaukee and over 20 communities in Waukesha County.
A fire started at the Joint Materials Recovery Facility (MRF) on the afternoon of Wednesday, 05/31/2023 on the main sorting floor. All staff were evacuated quickly and no injuries were reported. Impacts of the fire were severe and much of the sorting equipment was significantly damaged. The cause of the fire is unknown at this time and it’s likely it will remain so due to the extent of the fire.
Resident curbside collection remains unimpacted. Please continue to recycle right and set out carts on collection day. Keep a copy of the recycling guide in common areas like the fridge and reference the online recycling directory to know where to throw. After being collected curbside, recyclables are taken to a City of Milwaukee transfer station and then moved to other regional MRFs for sorting. As for the future of the MRF, there are still many unknowns. DPW staff are working with various specialists to understand the scope of damage from the roof down to the plumbing. Once the inspections are completed and the full impacts of the damage are understood then planning can begin on next steps for the City owned site and future of the MRF. Providing an effective recycling program is the law in Wisconsin and it remains a priority for Milwaukee. DPW will continue to work to build a resilient program to support Milwaukee’s waste reduction goals!
The City of Milwaukee works with our educational partner, Keep Greater Milwaukee Beautiful (KGMB), to offer a variety of recycling education programs.
Tours of the Materials Recovery Facility are not available at this time due to a severe fire that took place at the facility on 5/31/23. Currently, our programs do not include a trip to the MRF, but can still be done at our facility, or we can bring the program to your location! If you have further questions, please contact our Education Coordinator: Rachel Rasmussen at [email protected] or by phone at 414-272-5462 Ext. 106.
The free, monthly talk and tours are not available at this time due to a severe fire that took place at the Materials Recovery Facility on 5/31/23. While this program is currently unavailable, KGMB offers additional recycling and waste diversion programs that can be presented at our facility, or yours! These programs will not include a tour of the MRF. If you have further questions, please contact our Education Coordinator: Rachel Rasmussen at [email protected] or by phone at 414-272-5462 Ext. 106.
Tours of the Materials Recovery Facility are not available at this time due to a severe fire that took place at the facility on 5/31/23. School recycling programs won't include a trip to the MRF, but can still be done at our facility, or we can bring the program to your location! If you have further questions, please contact our Education Coordinator: Rachel Rasmussen at [email protected] or by phone at 414-272-5462 Ext. 106.