Upstate Shredding opens new dry heavy media plant in Owego

Upstate Shredding is excited to announce the opening of its new heavy media plant, located at the company’s Owego facility in Tioga Industrial Park. The opening of the highly anticipated plant will generate a minimum of 25 new full-time positions and will allow for zorba to be processed and sold domestically, keeping valuable jobs and material here in the United States.

The construction of this dry media plant was made possible with the assistance of a $1 million New York Empire State Development grant, awarded by the State of New York. The Southern Tier was one of three regions to be awarded $500 million in $1.5 billion Upstate New York revitalization funding.  

The project called for a capital investment of $7.5 million, all of which was privately funded beyond the $1 million grant. 

The new dry media plant contains state-of-the-art processing technology that will further process zorba, a shredded mix of non-ferrous metals consisting primarily of aluminum generated by eddy-current separator or other segregation techniques, to separate out the aluminum from the heavies (copper, brass, zinc, and stainless).  

Upstate Shredding – Weitsman Recycling will feed the media plant with its two company owned shredders in Owego, N.Y. and New Castle, Pa., and will also be buying material from outside sources throughout North America.

Upstate Shredding feels it is an optimal time to start up the plant with the uncertainty of exporting zorba and with the tariff threats being in place. Materials from the Owego and New Castle shredders will be processed at the plant, which is enclosed in a new 20,000 square foot building at 1 Recycle Dr. in Owego.  

The technology was purchased from SGM Magnetics, a North American leader in magnetic and sensor technology specializing in ferrous and non-ferrous metal separation. SGM Magnetics supplied a complete dry media plant for upgrading zorba sized between 1/2” to 6”. 

The system is designed for up to 15 tons of zorba per hour, separating the light metals (aluminum) from the heavy non-ferrous metals. There are only a few similar plants currently operating in the United States. 

This state-of-the-art equipment will take Upstate Shredding’s single zorba product and produce sorted high quality commodities such as twitch, cast aluminum, copper, brass, zinc and circuit boards using color-sorting technology.

Upstate Shredding – Weitsman Recycling is the East Coast’s largest privately held scrap metal processor, operating 17 locations throughout New York and Pennsylvania. In 2014 and 2016, Weitsman was honored as the top scrap recycling company in the world by S&P Platts Global, the premier resource for metals and mining worldwide. The company also won the award for Scrap Company of the Year from American Metal Market in 2015 and 2016.  

For more information on the company, visit www.upstateshredding.com.