Balcones Recycling Plant Breaks Ground

Austin moved one step closer to being a greener city Wednesday when Balcones Resources broke ground on the new materials recycling plant.

The plant will be open by the summer of 2012 and will handle 60 percent of the city's recyclables.

In April, city council members awarded Balcones a 20-year contract to process 60 percent of Austin's residential curbside recycling.

The plant will have some state of the art machinery and technology that will have the capacity to process more than 25 tons of material per hour.

One thing the machines can't do is seperate plastic bags, which is why the city will take up the issue of banning plastic bags in Austin.

Mayor Lee Leffingwell said it's all an effort to make Austin zero-waste by 2040 and save the city some money.

This plant will also help reduce our carbon footprint because of its access to the rail line and that's what it will use to ship its products.