Covanta Holding Corp. has begun operations at a new metal recycling operation in Fairless Hills, Pa.

The new facility has processing capacity for 12,000 tons per month and will clean and sort metal materials recovered from Covanta waste-to-energy (WTE) plants in the Northeast, the Morristown, N.J.-based company said in a news release.

The Fairless Hills facility has access to a deep water port, which provides the opportunity to load bulk cargo ships for domestic and international shipments.

"We are very pleased to get this new facility up and running," said Steve Bossotti, Covanta's senior vice president, Metals Management. "Sorting by material type and otherwise improving the quality of our recycled metal, provides us with a new set of capabilities we did not previously have and gives us a higher-value and more saleable end product in all market conditions."

Covanta since 2012 has invested in recycling more metal from the waste stream. The use of new technology and systems has improved metal recovery by the equivalent of 16 cars per facility per week for ferrous and non-ferrous metal, or the equivalent of 25,000 additional aluminum cans per week. Overall, Covanta recycles about 500,000 tons of metal per year.

In October Covanta subsidiary, Covanta Environmental Solutions acquired Waste Recovery Solutions Inc. (WRS) and Chesapeake Waste Solutions, two privately held environmental services companies located in Pennsylvania. The aim of the acquisitions was to expand its industrial material management network and capabilities in the mid-Atlantic region.

In May Covanta purchased solid and hazardous industrial waste firm Advanced Waste Services of West Allis, Wis. Advanced Waste also operates a ChemWorks treatment facility in Milwaukee, and has waste facilities in Rockford, Ill.; Portage, Ind.; New Castle, Pa.; and Cedar Rapids, Iowa. In addition, the company operates cleaning services.

Also that month, Covanta said it planned to upgrade its WTE operation at New York’s Onondaga County with the extension of its agreement to operate and maintain the recycling and WTE facility in Jamesville. The company planned to make investments and upgrades to systems at the facility with the accord with the Onondaga County Resource Recovery Agency (OCRRA).