Nesquehoning Borough Council heard from members of Alpha Bio-Med Services over a proposed expansion plan at its facility.

Last week, members of the company, known as Sharps Compliance Inc., at 600 Industrial Road in the borough, as well as Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection officials, went before council over the permit modification application.

“The intent of this meeting was to make sure that all municipal officials are aware of the project and aware of the details from the company and the details that the department takes to review that application,” said Roger Bellas, waste program manager at the DEP northeast regional office.

The application asks to increase the maximum permitted daily waste acceptance at the facility from 82 tons per day to 123 tons per day.

“We’re looking at installing an additional autoclave for additional tonnage and volume as our customer base grows,” said Andrew Goulet, operations manager for Alpha Bio-Med. We’re also looking to install two more boilers as redundancy and protect us that if a boiler goes down, we can continue to process our waste.”

There will be no additions constructed onto the existing building, but the company plans to rearrange some of the equipment inside to create the space that is needed.

Once completed, Goulet said it will add jobs, with approximately 70 to 90 jobs total at the site at full capacity.

Sharps currently processes medical waste from doctors’ offices, dentists, hospitals, schools, veterinarians and nursing homes.

It uses a steam disinfection system to process the waste before shredding it and transporting it to an off-site disposal facility.

Pharmaceutical, pathological or chemotherapeutic wastes are not treated at the facility, but are transported off-site to a proper disposal facility.

Sharps Compliance, with its main headquarters in Houston, Texas, has been operating in Nesquehoning since late 2016.

The company had purchased the 40,000-square-foot shell building from the Carbon Chamber and Economic Development Corp.

DEP will now continue its process in reviewing the application before making its final determination on the project.