Zero-Sort Recycling Helps Keep The Beast Green

At Killington Resort, we are always looking for ways to send less to the landfill and preserve natural resources as part of our mission to Play Forever. By partnering with Casella and taking advantage of its Zero Sort Recycling facility a.k.a. Material Recovery Facility (MRF) right down the road in Rutland, we have been able to continually improve our systems and streamline the products we use over the years.

Several members of the Resort Leadership Team, including President and General Manager Mike Solimano, got the opportunity to tour the facility and see the process in action. This firsthand look helps us understand how the system works and see what we can do better.

Over 650,000 tons of recyclables are recovered through the Rutland MRF in a calendar year, coming from a wide region including parts of upstate New York and New Hampshire, in addition to Vermont. The would-be trash is sorted by three plastic-picking robots and a staff of 22 humans who are on the job 5-6 days a week working 8–10-hour shifts. It’s quite impressive to see what initially appears as a pile of garbage dropped off by a fleet of trucks sorted and packaged into bricks of resalable materials ready to be put to a higher and better use.

As the team learned more about the process from General Manager Joe Soulia, a truck carrying our custom-built dumpster from the K-1 lodge conveniently pulled up for disposal. The operator dropped the refuse – mostly cardboard boxes – and it began its journey through the system, which takes up much of the 58,000 square foot building.

“Killington is doing a great job,” Soulia says. “Nothing has been rejected due to contamination in several years; your efforts have made a difference.”

Solimano explained some of the steps we’ve taken, including using reusable flatware and silverware rather than disposable containers at our busiest dining locations such as K-1. We provide a dump station where our team sorts the trash, so guests don’t have to. We also make judgment calls in our self-serve locations with a goal to not send the bags obviously dripping with chili along with recyclables.

Casella Chairman and CEO John Casella joined the tour as well and spoke about how the process of recycling is a constant evolution.

“Our team is challenged every day to find different uses for materials and work with manufacturers to take it back,” he says. “It’s a journey with no destination. We just keep working at it.”