Originally operated as a paper processing facility, TROC awarded an agreement to a partnership involving two companies located on Christian Lane in Berlin, one with expertise in equipment designed to separate commingled containers, the other a paper processor, and the project got under way in 1992 following equipment shakedown and testing. Ownership of the facility changed hands a number of times, and in April 2007 Murphy Road acquired the plant from Waste Management/Recycle America. The region's contractor, Murphy Road Recycling, made the decision in late 2008 to convert the Berlin Material Recovery Facility (MRF) to handle single stream materials. That effort is under way, utilizing state-of-the-art equipment provided by Sherbrooke O.E.M.

Using a variety of conveyors, screens, magnets, aluminum separators, and an optical sorting system, the new plant will have the ability to process over 20 tons per hour of single stream materials to produce high quality, baled materials for use in manufacture of paper, steel and aluminum products, and a variety of plastic products.

The facility handles over 70 tons per day of materials delivered by the TROC member towns, and includes three high capacity Bollegraf balers, two for fiber materials and one for mixed bottles and cans. A unique machine referred to as the “star screens separator” divides the incoming mix of newspaper, cardboard, plastics and glass into segregated streams, and an eddy current and magnet device is used to process aluminum and steel items, including “tin cans” (which are actually made of steel).

One of the most advanced features of the Automated Material Handling, Inc. facility is a state-of-the-art fiber optics system that utilizes an optical identification system to detect and sort plastics. Since plastics utilize petroleum-based products and have rapidly increased in use for packaging material, recovery of these materials represents an important opportunity to decrease our dependence on imported oil