Phoenix's 27th Avenue Materials Recovery Facility just picked up a major statewide honor for its recent transformation, capping a renovation that replaced 20-year-old sorting equipment with eleven optical sorters, two ballistic separators, a trommel screen, and a robot capable of pulling roughly 70 contaminants off a sorting line in a single minute. The facility, which handles trash and recycling sorting for 420,000 Phoenix households, reopened on April 30, 2025, after the overhaul, and Mayor Kate Gallego cut the ceremonial ribbon at its grand reopening.
The Arizona Chapter of the American Public Works Association presented the 2026 Project of the Year Award to the City of Phoenix Solid Waste Division for the 27th Avenue upgrades project, according to Phoenix Public Works. The APWA Project of the Year Committee selected the renovation based on construction management, timely completion, safety, community relations, environmental considerations, adverse-condition accomplishments, and sustainability. Phoenix Public Works called the recognition an honor for a project that greatly upgraded its sorting technology.
A Facility That Sat Idle for Years
The 27th Avenue plant's roots stretch back to 1998, when it opened as Phoenix's first materials recovery facility following the city's launch of voluntary curbside recycling in the early 1990s, according to background compiled by Global Futures Laboratory. A second sorting facility, North Gateway, followed in 2006 as the region's population grew. By January 2021, the original 27th Avenue machinery had reached the end of its useful life at 20 years old, and Phoenix suspended operations there, rerouting all municipal residential recyclables to North Gateway for the duration of a multi-year renovation, per city records.
The rebuild that followed was neither quick nor cheap. In January 2022, the Phoenix City Council authorized a contract worth up to $25 million with Machinex Technologies Inc. to design and build the custom single-stream sorting machinery now running at the site. The following year, in September 2023, the council approved an $8 million job order agreement amendment with McCarthy Building Companies, Inc. to retrofit the building itself so it could accommodate the new equipment, according to city council meeting records.
Private Operator Runs the Renamed Campus
Day-to-day operation of the facility now falls to Balcones Resources, a firm backed by investment organization Closed Loop Partners, which won a 10-year operating contract estimated at $159 million in October 2022 after beating out four competing waste management vendors, as reported by Resource Recycling. Following the overhaul, the modernized plant can process more than 460 million pounds of residential single-stream recyclables annually, according to a Closed Loop Partners impact report.
The plant sits on Phoenix's Resource Innovation Campus at 27th Avenue and Lower Buckeye Road, a 40-acre circular economy industrial park that also houses the city's commercial composting facility, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The campus leases land to clean-technology businesses that convert waste into usable raw materials, part of a broader eco-industrial strategy for the site.
Where the Upgrade Fits Into Phoenix's Bigger Goals
The renovation ties directly into Phoenix's Zero Waste and Circular Economy Roadmap, which targets a 50% landfill diversion rate by 2030 and full zero waste by 2050, aligned with the city's Climate Action Plan. Phoenix's waste diversion rate stood at roughly 36% in fiscal year 2021-2022, according to city figures. Phoenix Public Works has publicly reaffirmed its zero waste by 2050 goal.
Not every Phoenix resident benefits directly from the upgraded plant, however. Under Phoenix City Code, municipal solid waste and curbside recycling services are legally limited to single-family homes, complexes with fewer than 30 units, nonprofits, and city facilities, per research from Global Futures Laboratory. Private haulers handle collection for commercial properties and larger apartment complexes, meaning the 27th Avenue upgrades chiefly serve single-family and small multi-family residents.
Whatever recyclables aren't recovered still has somewhere to go. Unrecycled household trash collected at Phoenix's two transfer stations is consolidated and hauled roughly 56 miles southwest to the city-owned State Route 85 Landfill in Buckeye, Arizona, according to city records. Phoenix Public Works notes that its transfer stations, which include the materials recovery facilities where recyclables are sorted, baled, and shipped to manufacturers, help reduce how much material makes that trip.
No Public Tours at 27th Avenue, But Options Exist
The 27th Avenue facility itself does not host public tours, according to Phoenix Public Works. Residents curious about how the sorting process works can instead join free tours offered every Thursday at the North Gateway Transfer Station through the Public Works Zero Waste team. Phoenix Public Works also said it monitors its official social media page from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday for resident questions.
The renovation's central promise, according to Phoenix Public Works, is straightforward: increased recovery of recyclable materials and fewer items ending up buried at the landfill. With the new machinery fully operational for over a year now and a statewide award in hand, the city is pointing to the 27th Avenue project as a model for the infrastructure investment needed to hit its 2030 and 2050 diversion targets.
