Located on an 11-acre waterfront pier, this new recycling center has received widespread praise and multiple awards for its design by Selldorf Architects since opening in 2013. The facility, made almost entirely from recycled steel, was built with the public in mind, and features an Education Center with interactive exhibits and a viewing platform that allows visitors to see the vast processing system, which features more than $25 million in state of the art equipment.

Today, the Sunset Park MRF (pronounced “merf”) processes the majority of the city’s commingled curbside material—more than 18,000 tons of metal, glass and plastic collected by the NYC Department of Sanitation (DSNY) each month. Most inbound material arrives by barge from Sims facilities in Queens and the Bronx, removing an estimated 240,000 DSNY collection truck miles per year from city roadways (material from Brooklyn arrives directly in DSNY collection trucks).

Join us for a tour with experts from Sims Municipal Recycling to see for yourself how this stunning marine transfer station serves as another clear illustration of how good design can turn infrastructure into a local asset.

This program is part of Getting to Zero: New York + Waste, a year-long series of tours and talks exploring New York City’s waste system.