The shredder is the recycling industry’s most advanced equipment, said Billings manager Marshall Knick.
“At the end of the shredder, you have nearly pure steel you can sell to the mills and they know exactly what they are getting, and sorted-out aluminum. Otherwise, you have to do that by hand,” he said.
Pacific Steel has had opposition at its current downtown location at 777 Fourth Ave. N. when they tried to build a new recycling facility with a three-story shredder off Neibauer Road near ZooMontana and a residential subdivision but that was opposed by County Commissioners as well as others. The Yellowstone County Commissioners rejected the proposal in the past but encouraged Pacific Steel & Recycling to look for another location.
The shredder will be located in Lockwood and will be the biggest shredder in Montana. It will be available for shredding cars, trucks and appliances from Eastern Montana and surounding areas.
The four-acre Lockwood site near two gravel pits is located Northeast of Johnson Lane along Coulson Road between Interstate 90 and the Yellowstone River.
Representative Jonathan McNiven is happy to hear all the good that is increasing in the Lockwood area. He said, “Having businesses like Montana Rail Link and Pacific Recycling are great businesses partners to have in Lockwood and we welcome more like-minded businesses to come.”
The Montana Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) approved the license for a solid-waste management system back in April 2012.
Electric providers NorthWestern Energy and Yellowstone Valley Electric Cooperative are positioning to supply power to the facility becuase of the revenue it will generate for them.
Pacific is planning to spend $5 million of the $20 million to build a quarter-mile rail spur to connect its plant to the Montana Rail Link line that runs along Coulson Road.
With the company plans and expansion, hiring eight to 10 more employees will be needed to run the Lockwood plant, which will increase its workforce by one-third so the increase in jobs will be a good thing for the Lockwood and Billings area as well.