Cocoa firm expands into Sarasota, plans 80 hires

SARASOTA — Single Stream Recyclers, a Cocoa-based recycling firm with a facility in Brevard County, is expanding to Sarasota, with plans to hire 40 people later this year.

The company plans to hire nearly 80 people, in total, when it reaches capacity in 2018, according to a statement. Single Stream Recyclers sorts, bales and ships paper, cardboard, aluminum, plastics, metal, glass and other recyclables — materials that are now going into local landfills — from residential curbside and other locations.

“Recycling is important now more than ever,” Single Stream Recyclers co-owner John Hansen says in the statement. “SSR and the state of Florida have the same goal of recycling 75% of material that would typically go to the landfills. Sarasota County is a perfect market for expansion as there is currently a lack of single stream processing capacity.”

Single stream recycling is a concept where residents put recyclables in a single, large rolling cart. This is in contrast to the current collection for most residents who have small bins and must separate the paper goods from their containers. This method helps to increase participation within the population, therefore increasing recycling, the release states.

“Single Stream Recyclers is an excellent addition to our business community while also a benefit to the local environment,” Sarasota County Commission Chairman Paul Caragiulo says in the release. “We were glad to assist them with our fast-track permitting process.”

The new facility will be located at 3901 Orange Ave., in the greater Newtown neighborhood. It will be just under 100,000 square feet, substantially larger than SSR's 63,750-square-foot facility in Brevard County. Company officials say the larger size will increase efficiencies and double the capacity of the Brevard plant by using state of the art recycling technologies, and will become one of the most advanced such facilities nationwide.