General Iron formalizes Chicago relocation

Chicago metal recycler General Iron finalized its plan to transition to a new location in the southeast part of the city by 2021, closing its current operations by the end of 2020.

General Iron agreed last week with the city of Chicago to close its Lincoln Park recycling facility in northern Chicago, which includes a 60,000 gt/month shredder, by 31 December 2020.

Under the agreement the company will begin operations at a new facility to be developed in southeast Chicago during 2021.

General Iron and recycling group Reserve Management Group (RMG) previously entered into a strategic agreement to relocate General Iron's facility onto roughly 175 acres of RMG land, adjacent to its South Shore Recycling facility.

For the time being, General Iron also agreed to provide traffic control to mitigate congestion during rush hour and manage truck congestion at its Lincoln Park operations.

Its new facility will include an enclosed shredder with a suction hood, high efficiency filters, solar panels and air monitoring technology.

General Iron also installed a $2mn regenerative thermal oxidizer and scrubber to comply with environmental protection requirements to reduce uncontrolled volatile organic compound emissions at its current north side operations. This equipment will be transferred to operations at the new site, according to the company.

General Iron is Chicago's dominant shredder and has operated in the city for over 100 years. Other shredder operators in the area include Sims Metal Management, Scrap Metal Services (SMS), Cozzi Recycling and Lemont Scrap Processing.

RMG processes ferrous, non-ferrous, electronic and plastic scrap with operations in nine states.