A major regional recycling plant in the Twin Cities has finished a $23 million renovation to increase its capacity, as the state aims to recycle more and throw away less.

Troy Hanson is the director of post collections operations at WM, which recently showed off the updated plant. Hanson said the 15-year-old facility — off Broadway Street in northeast Minneapolis — was due for improvements.

“Population is growing, recycling is becoming more popular — we’re going to need more capacity,” Hanson said.

Improvements include new AI sorting technology, in place of some hand-sorting. Separating out different materials is a crucial step in the process — sort wrong, and waste can end up sent to the landfill. And, sorting needs to move fast. The WM plant in Minneapolis processes dozens of tons of

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