REPUBLIC SERVICES / ALLIED WASTE RECYCLING FOR KIDS

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Do you know what happens to recycle material after it gets picked up at the curb or how recycle material gets sorted when you mix it all together? Well, if not, we're going to tell you! After Allied Waste drivers collect recycling, they take the material to a materials recovery facility (MRF) where machines sort the recycling. Workers pull out unwanted materials like garbage, plastic bags and other non-recyclable items, with additional processing done using conveyor belts, screens, magnets, balers and eddy current. Take a tour a MRF and see how your recycling is sorted, baled and sold to companies who will make the USED items into brand NEW items!

These items are commonly purchased by families like yours everyday. You take them home, you eat the goodies inside and then you are left with empty containers. Now what should you do with them?

Recycle them! If you’re unsure if the product is recyclable, look at the bottom. If they’re recyclable, there will be a recycle symbol with chasing arrows and a #1-#7. Some #6 is Styrofoam and is NOT recyclable. Each one of these numbers means something: Click here to learn more.

Once your recycle material is collected from your cart, it is taken to a MRF for sorting and processing.

After the recycle material has been dumped on the concrete pad, a loader moves material onto the first conveyor belt.

The recyclable material is conveyed to the pre-sort work station where employees remove garbage, non-recyclable items and large pieces of cardboard before the remaining material reaches the screens.

The sorting screen lifts the paper (flats) over the top while the food and beverage containers (rounds) roll off the bottom. The paper is conveyed to the baler where it is packaged and ready to sell to the end user who makes new paper.

The food and beverage containers are conveyed to the container sort line where employees separate out the plastics, and strong magnets remove the tin cans and an eddy current removes the aluminum.

Materials are sorted into their individual container types called bunkers until they are taken to the packaging area. The materials are dumped on the floor and pushed into a machine called a baler. The baler moves the materials around and they are formed into squares, or bales, and secured with thick wire.

The resulting bales are stacked and ready for shipment to market. The bales are loaded onto large truck trailers and taken to companies who buy the material and recycle it into new items, like new cereal boxes or plastic beverage containers! Glass is the only item not baled - what a mess that would be!