Tulsa Recycle Center Adds Measures To Prevent Future Fires

It's been a year since the Tulsa Recycle center north of downtown reopened after a massive fire damaged all of its processing equipment. A lithium ion battery slipped through the system and sparked a small fire, which then caused what was described as a rubber fire which was a very hot and intense fire.

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Robert Pickens, the Vice President of Recycling for American Waste Control, hopes new procedures and increased vigilance from citizens will prevent another fire like that in the future.

The recycle center also added new equipment after the fire, including a device to help the quality control workers see batteries and other items that shouldn't be going through the recycle program. It also includes robotics to help sort items.

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"We added the robotics in, and a lot of the robotics helps us to identify. It’s very vision related from there for us to see those items. The robots can pick over 22,000 picks per day on a single shift. From there, the metering then helps us distribute material better," Pickens said.

Even though the recycle center had added new measures to make sure it's doing everything it can to prevent future fires, it is also asking Tulsa area residents to be aware of what can and cannot be recycled.

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"go to feedmrmurph.com and look at what we can accept in our recycling program. If they don’t want to check it out, toss it out. In the sense of batteries, batteries can be recycled. You can take them to the M.e.t., you have batteries plus, you have interstate batteries. Those are locations that will take batteries back," Pickens said.

Click Here to see what can and cannot be recycled.