Mid America Recycling - Des Moines

Recognizing that recycling needs are special and unique, Mid America Recycling (MAR) offers expert consultation and works diligently to understand customer needs, provides timely and dependable service, and ensures consistent movement of recyclables. With an emphasis and priority on great customer service, Mid America Recycling provides both large and small companies with a complete portfolio of recycling services and end markets in North America.

Mid America Recycling is the largest recycling facility in Iowa and offers both residential and commercial single stream processing capabilities. The Des Moines operation includes a multi-material recycling plant, glass processing facility, equipment development and manufacturing shop, and secure multi-media destruction services. The facility provides services to customers throughout Iowa, Illinois, Minnesota and Missouri.

MAR is the largest deposit container processor in Iowa, and is also the materials processor for the Des Moines Curb It! recycling program, which helps 120,000 households recycle over 18,000 tons of materials each year.

Our Materials Recovery Facility (MRF) in Des Moines is designed to maximize multi-material recycling processing and shipping. Recycling operations are housed in a 75,000-square-foot building containing an automated trailer dumping system for full semitrailer loads of materials, six rail docks, 15 trailer docks and covered storage space for more than 2 million pounds of materials.

Additionally, Mid America’s material processing operations include an above-ground truck scale, making accurate weighing of recycled material deliveries more efficient. Certified by the state of Iowa, our scales are designed to weigh full trailer loads, smaller individual bundles and bales of materials.

Mid America Recycling provides secure media destruction in our service area throughout Iowa. Both our secure destruction processing area and holding area are monitored by a 24-hour surveillance video system.

Services

Paper Recycling

Mid America Recycling collects, processes and ships paper domestically and internationally. Our quality assurance processes allow us to market our paper at the best price, providing our end users with the confidence of producing a high quality product.

Brokerage Services

Brokered materials can be any recycled commodity and must be “mill-ready,” meaning they have already been processed (i.e. cleaned, sorted and baled) per mill specifications. Due to our large market share, strong market pricing, prompt payments, accurate reporting and fast reliable service, we provide maximum profit to our customers' bottom line.

The convenience of brokerage services is that it we do all the work, leaving our customers to focus on their business. With an overwhelming number of end users looking for clean, quality materials, brokerage service brings both profit for our customers and a quality products to our end users.

Metals Recycling – Aluminum & Tin/Steel Cans

Aluminum and tin cans are handled by Mid America Recycling in both loose and baled forms. Before final processing and shipment, these materials are inspected on quality sorting conveyor systems to ensure the highest level of quality for end markets.

Glass Recycling

Mid America Recycling operates the newest and most modern glass recycling facilities in the United States. In our unique recycling process, green, amber and flint (clear) glass containers are crushed into “cullet” and sized to end user specifications while contamination such as caps, neck rings, labels, ferrous and non-ferrous metals are removed. Processing more than 25 tons per hour, our systems produce high quality furnace ready cullet that is shipped via truck and railcar to end users through North America.

Plastics Recycling

Mid America Recycling is one of the leading plastics recyclers in the Midwest. Four grades of plastics, including large volumes of PET, LDPE, HDPE and PVC are sorted, cleaned and processed into large bales for shipment to both domestic and international recyclers.

In addition to the single stream recycling facility in Des Moines, MAR offers the following services in the locations below:

• Sioux City, Iowa - Granulate plastic
• Sioux Falls, South Dakota - Baling aluminum and plastic
• Cedar Rapids, Iowa - Baling aluminum and plastic; granulate plastic

Mid America Recycling also offers document destruction service with the latest video surveillance and security measures to protect our customers. We provide secure destruction service for customers of all sizes – both businesses and residential. Walk-ins are welcome for those wanting to witness the destruction of their personal records firsthand.

With a long and successful history in recycling and document destruction, Mid America Recycling’s owners and management are “pioneers” in the industry with more than 200 years of combined recycling and document destruction experience. As we strive to be the best in the industry, we look forward to becoming your trusted recycling and confidential destruction partner!