How do recycling plants separate materials
How do recycling plants separate materials? As you consider whether a random piece of paper, metal, or plastic can be recycled, you stand in front of a trash and recycling bin. You just toss it in the recycling bin without giving it much thought because someone at the facility will sort it out. When you think of a large factory that looks like a “Santa’s workshop,” you immediately picture workers sorting plastic bottles, cans, paper, and cardboard by hand into perfectly arranged piles and working elbow-deep in recycling materials.
Unfortunately, this fictitious factory where everyone is manually sorting your recycling is not real. In fact, recycling is sorted using technology, machines, and other pieces of equipment that are made to separate particular kinds of waste from the recycling stream. A Material Recovery Facility, or MRF, is where everything takes place. It is impossible to manually sort all of the recycling through MRFs, which handle anywhere from 30 to 900 tons per day!
Even though a lot of people are still sorting, shipping, recycling, bailing and shipping your recycling, very few actually sort the material. A lot of people are responsible for making the technology and equipment, running the business, selling the materials, inspecting the bales, and educating the general public. More details about the financial advantages of recycling can be found here. Let’s get geeky and look at the recycling system as a whole and how each piece of equipment contributes to the process so that we can truly comprehend how it works.
“Material Recovery Facilities” are used to empty the recycling bins and sort the waste using cutting-edge optical technology. The waste is tumbled in a large drum to remove all organics, like food waste, and fine materials, like soil and dust, that could contaminate the recycled materials. After the filtration is removed, this material will be transformed into RDF, a fuel product.
Materials in two dimensions and three dimensions are separated. Optics control the two-dimensional material’s attachment to a belt, allowing it to differentiate between the various materials. A worker sifts through the materials to make sure none are contaminated after they are separated by a machine.
To be recycled, plastics must be clean. If you put a half-eaten pizza slice in a plastic container and put it in the recycling bin, you risk contaminating thousands of pounds of plastic. You run the risk of being viewed as hypocritical if you throw away good pizza. Plastic bottles that are filled with liquid remain in the same situation. For recycling, clean plastic is essential. On Route 355, just south of Shady Grove Road, the 57,000-square-foot Montgomery County Recycling Center is situated on approximately nine acres of land. The facility is close to the county’s Solid Waste Transfer Station.
In November 2001, the Recycling Center completed its approximately 7,000 square foot addition to the tip floor. The Recycling Center now has more leeway in how it operates thanks to the addition, which was added to the west side of the existing structure. You will have more space to receive various materials.
As the county’s population continues to rise, the addition also provides space for the capacity to handle additional materials. In the summer of 2002, a brand-new processing system was implemented. The recycling system relies heavily on the Recycling Center. Residents can now recycle with greater ease as a result. The Recycling Center will sort your glass, cans, and plastic bottles for you.
Your recyclables are collected and brought to the Recycling Center when you leave them at the curb. Before being trucked to mills and plants, where they are made into new products, bottles, and cans made of glass, plastic, and other recycled materials are inspected, sorted, and bundled. Paper recyclers receive waste paper via shipping. At the Montgomery County Compost Facility, yard trimmings are collected and composted.
Recyclables shouldn’t be contaminated because they are used as raw materials for new products. Residents must therefore be aware of and adhere to the instructions for recycling preparation. After the inclusion of recyclable materials in new products, you will make a decision once more. Buy products made from recycled materials to complete the recycling process. That effectively concludes the recycling cycle!
