Tour a Recycling Center
Check out what happens to your recyclables after they leave your house.
You always put your old homework paper and plastic bottles into the recycling bin. Go, you! But that’s just the first step for the 67 million tons of waste Americans recycle each year. Take a tour of the first stop for your recyclables: the facility where the materials are sorted. (Every facility has its own equipment and process—this is a peek into just one type!)
TRUCK STOP
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A truck cruises to your curbside and workers snag the items from your recycle bin, eventually bringing them to a place called a materials recovery facility, or MRF (pronounced MURF). This is where items will be sorted by material (like paper and aluminum) so they can be sent to other facilities and recycled into new products.
PUSHOVER
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The truck dumps its haul in an area of the MRF called the tipping floor. A tractor pushes the heaps of mixed recyclables onto a slow-moving conveyor belt. As the items move forward, they bump against a spinning cylinder that spreads the waste onto another conveyor belt in a layer that’s about six to eight inches thick—just the right height for the rest of the system to work.
BAD BAGS
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Sometimes we put the wrong stuff into our recycling bins. So while the materials are whooshing by on the conveyor belt, fast-fingered workers pull out items that might damage the MRF’s machines, like plastic bags and plastic wrap that can tangle in the equipment. Workers also look for electronics, big pieces of metal, and clothing: They’re usually sent to a landfill from here.
SURFIN' PAPER
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Next the recyclables meet a series of jagged wheels made out of rubber. Light, flat items like paper and cardboard easily ride the twirling discs like a surfer on a wave, while bulky items fall onto another conveyor belt. The sorted and baled paper then goes to another plant. There it’s cleaned, crushed into pulp, and then turned into recycled paper.
SHATTERING GLASS
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The remaining objects—mostly glass, plastic, and small metal—arrive at a set of rotating steel discs that break glass into tiny pieces. Other items bounce on top. The shattered stuff falls into a machine where a stream of air removes bits of paper. The fragments then go to a special glass recycling facility.
POOF, PLASTICS
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So now what happens to what’s left over? A stream of air blows lighter items like plastic to a new conveyor belt, while heavier items like metal keep going.
PLASTIC SORTING
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Different types of plastic need to be separated before they can be recycled. As plastic travels along the conveyor belt, a machine with an infrared camera beams light at the items to identify the plastic. (It’s all about how the light reflects off the item.) Once the machine recognizes a certain type, a burst of air pushes the item into the correct bucket. Then they go to another facility to become recycled products.
MAGNETIC MAGIC
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As the metal moves along, a powerful magnet attracts steel and tin, then drops them into a bucket. The items are baled into giant cubes and sent to plants to melt them before recycling into new products.
CAN-CAN CURRENT
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Aluminum isn’t usually magnetic, so cans and foil pass by the first magnet. Instead, a machine creates a strong magnetic field that repels the aluminum, blasting it off the conveyor belt and into another bucket. The aluminum can be melted down and recycled into cans and foil at another facility.
LAST STOP
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The separated paper, glass, steel, aluminum, and plastic are baled and eventually sold to other facilities that will turn them into recycled products. Other items are sent to a landfill or are burned.