In 1997, Visy Industries opened a paper recycling plant and container board mill in Staten Island. The plant processes 150,000 tons of the City's waste paper, as well as tons of paper collected from surrounding areas, each year. The paper is recycled into linerboard for corrugated packaging products. When complete in the year 2000, the facility will employ 413 and will have a total output of about 500,000 tons per year. Bottles, cans, beverage cartons, and aluminum foil are separated into piles of steel, glass, aluminum, beverage cartons, and plastic.
Steel is sold to scrap metal dealers and steel mills to make a variety of new steel products.
Milk and juice containers are de-polycoated and the paper remaining is used to make new products. Aluminum cans are baled and returned to can manufacturers where they are melted down, made into new cans, and back on grocery shelves within six weeks. Aluminum foil is also baled and returned to manufacturers where it is processed into new aluminum tins or plates. Plastic is sorted by type and sent to manufacturers who make products such as artificial lumber and stuffing for ski jackets. Christmas trees become wood chips.