We recently had the opportunity to film inside Waste Management’s brand-new state-of-the-art recycling facility on Indianapolis’s west side. The nearly 125,000-square-foot materials recovery facility officially opened on April 9, 2026, at 2025 Stout Field West Drive, marking a major milestone for recycling infrastructure in central Indiana.
By the numbers:
- $60 million total investment.
- 200,000 tons of recyclables processed per year.
- 125,000 square feet of facility space.
- 30+ new jobs created on site.
A once-in-a-generation shift for Indianapolis
City officials called the opening transformative. Mo McReynolds, Director of Sustainability for the City of Indianapolis, put it best: “This is a really important shift in Indianapolis. It’s a once-in-a-generation culture shift to knowing what’s in our trash and what could be in our recycling so we can best use those assets within our community to make additional jobs, additional resources, additional products.”
The facility is central to Indianapolis’s push toward universal curbside recycling. Paper and cardboard processed here will be shipped to paper mills across Indiana to be turned into boxes and other products.
What’s inside
The technology deployed here is genuinely next-level. When WM had just 30 optical sorters across 100 facilities in 2012, this single Indianapolis site runs 13 of them alone. Other highlights include:
- Ballistic separators to split 2D and 3D materials
- An upgraded glass recovery system capable of diverting 23,400 tons of glass per year
- Advanced fire detection designed to catch fires before they spread
- Non-wrapping screens to minimize downtime from plastic film
- A public education room with scheduled tours and a dedicated Recycling Education Representative
State recognition
The Indiana Department of Environmental Management awarded a $500,000 grant specifically for the glass recycling equipment. The facility is part of WM’s broader $1.4 billion commitment to build and upgrade 39 recycling facilities across North America between 2022 and 2026.
Frank Fello, Area Vice President of WM Great Lakes, summed it up: “The WM Indianapolis recycling facility provides significant recycling infrastructure to central Indiana, capable of processing up to 200,000 tons of recyclables per year.”
Andrew Berger, President and CEO of the Indiana Manufacturers Association, added: “This facility does more than just process waste; it strengthens our supply chain resilience and helps Indiana companies meet the growing global demand for sustainable production.”
Part of something bigger
This is WM’s fourth new recycling facility to open in 2026, following locations in Orange, CA; Pembroke Pines, FL; and Ontario, Canada. Locally, it’s a cornerstone of Indianapolis’s universal curbside recycling plans, with Pratt Industries serving as a key downstream partner, accepting paper and cardboard bales and even supporting paper cup collection through Indianapolis curbside services.
Sources: Waste Management (wm.com), WTHR Indianapolis, Indianapolis Business Journal, Resource Recycling.
