New Bedford Waste, WERC-2 to Open Massachusetts Recycling Unit

New Bedford Waste Services LLC and WERC-2 are combining to open a recycling facility in Rochester, Mass., that will be known as Zero Waste Solutions LLC (ZWS).

New Bedford Waste, a sister company of ABC Disposal Service Inc., both based in New Bedford, Mass., said in a news release the facility will cover 90,000 square feet and be solar powered. WERC-2 is based in Pocasset, Mass.

The facility will be built at Rochester Environmental Park, a municipal solid waste (MSW) and construction and demolition (C&D) demolition processing facility and transfer station in Rochester. It will accept MSW, both residential and commercial, with single-stream and co-mingled recyclables, and C&D.

Solar panels covering 80,000 square feet on the facility roof will power the plant for the most part. Officials expect the facility to open in the summer of 2014.

The operation will use WERC-2 process to make Eco-Tac fuel briquettes. It is a solid fuel that burns, handles, and stores like high-Btu coal, but with significant emissions benefits, the companies said.

“By combining the capabilities of our transfer stations and hauling operations with WERC-2’s innovative technologies, we will be able to develop an extremely efficient facility,” said New Bedford Waste President Michael Camara. “The technologies allow us to process a larger percentage of materials which can then be recycled and reused. We will be able to recycle as much as 95 percent of the materials accepted at ZWS.”