Georgia firm plans to grow Bridesburg appliance recycler, will employ 60

Recleim L.L.C., a five-year-old Atlanta-based company, says it has bought the appliance recycling facility at 4301 North Delaware Ave., in the city's Bridesburg section, from ARCA Advanced Processing, for a price it won't disclose at this time.

The location is near the foot of the Betsy Ross Bridge to New Jersey, where Frankford Creek passes under I-95 and dumps into the Delaware.

The buyer says it plans to employ a total of 60 at the plant when it is fully staffed, and will advertise as it needs to add people. Recleim says it will use the plant to "de-manufacture" heating, ventilating, air conditioning, and vending equipment.

Recleim took the plant over from ARCA. The new owner says it plans to increase output, to a total of 35,000 tons of steel, copper, aluminum, and other recyclables, and industrial gases, each year.

Recleim also has a plant in Graniteville, S.C., and plans to open another in Lima, Ohio next month. The company has also acquired recycling assets of the former Nova Services Inc. in Dundalk, Md., near Baltimore.

With more plants, "we can reduce the number of miles that we have to transport items," said Steve Bush, chief executive officer of Recleim, in a statement. Bush, cofounder Pete Davis and their partners own Recleim.

Bush says the Delaware Ave. facility "is one of only three plants in the country that can capture and process ozone-depleting substances and greenhouse gases that are found in the foam lining of expired appliances."

Recleim hopes to add customers in Pennsylvania and other states "to advance our mission of handling and destroying end-of-life appliances and other items in an environmentally-friendly manner," Bush concluded.

(This story has been updated to clarify that Bush and his partners purchased the ARCA facility, not the company.)