National Grid's Investment Recovery and Recycling Services facility is staffed by 16 National Grid employees and located at a 60,000 square foot warehouse is Liverpool, New York. Here, reusable material is stored for ultimate sale and several recycling processes are performed. Material is sent company-wide to this centrally located warehouse for ultimate disposition.
When the facility was set up in the 1987, National Grid Investment Recovery saw a need to develop a better solid waste practice. A thorough waste stream analysis was performed at select locations within our service territory. As a result of this analysis, waste reduction programmes were stepped up or created in the following areas:
- ferrous/non-ferrous metals;
- wood waste;
- glass/ceramics;
- plastics;
- paper, and
- small yet still effective recycling programs for the refurbishment of hardware, toner cartridges, light bulbs, lead batteries, streetlight luminaries and meters.
Among the recycling center's services are the sale of excess inventory and obsolete material, the sale of stock materials to other utilities, and safe, environmentally sound disposal of unusable materials.
Advanced capabilities include the granulation of surplus electrical wire from power lines. This involves grinding the wire in special equipment into increasingly small pieces, separating the metals from the plastic, and producing pure, highly valuable metal nuggets that can be sold. The polyethylene insulation gleaned from the wires is processed and sold as well.
Besides having National Grid employees, a partnership was developed with Monarch Industries, a vocational division of the Onondaga County Association of Retarded Citizens. An enclave was created at the Investment Recovery Center for mentally and physically challenged workers. These workers sort and bale paper, cut and sort wire/cable, dismantle streetlights, remove insulators and metal clamps, connectors and other line hardware from wire/cable.
The benefits of this partnership are shared. Investment Recovery provides Monarch’s clients with a community work setting using modern industrial equipment not available at other enclaves. It also provides a chance for the workers to earn money, develop skills and learn the responsibilities of having a job. The objective of this programme is to eventually “mainstream” these clients into the community work force.
The Investment Recovery facility provides not only environmental and social benefits to the community, but also significant financial benefits to National Grid.